Who Dominates your bookshelves?

[Hyndara]

Good thread, Gatefan, exactly my thing ...

Mh, I'm pretty sure some parts of the following nearly no one here will know. We will see

Okay, let me think/look at my bookshelves ...

I'm orginally from Fantasy, so that stuff first:
J.R.R. Tolkien
Robin Hobb
Tad Williams (Otherland ... *dreams*)
Michael Ende (anyone here knows "The Neverending Story"?)
J.K. Rowlings (who not?)
Michael Moorcock
Ashok K. Banker
Lloyd Alexander
Charles Sheffield
Geraldine Harris (okay, she only wrote one series of four books but it's still my holy bible of fantasy)
near the entire DSA-series including complete Myranor (the missing ones I am not interested in because I know the author) - DSA orginally is a popular RPG. Don't ask me how I ended up collecting the novels, I simply have no answer. I'm not a LARPer and normally not interested in this stuff
3/4 of the Dragonlance-series (some parts I missed when they were published)
Wolfgang Hohlbein (but only his "Indiana Jones"-novels - to get the full series - and his "Hexer von Salem"-series)
Cornelia Funke (Inkheart anyone?)

Horror:
Dean Koontz
Clive Barker (The Books of Blood - awesome!)
Edgar Allen Poe his complete work
Brian Lumley
Anne Rice
Bram Stoker (not only "Dracula", he had written a lot of other very good stuff)
Thomas Ligotti
some very, very good German writers like Markus K. Korb or Malte Sempten

Thriller/Crime:
Preston/Child
Jeff Lindsay (the one who wrote Dexter)
Scott McBain (yes, I know, cheesy stuff - but I really like the way his imagination goes)
Nicolas Remin (a German author who writes historic crime-stories. I love the characters he writes, besides from the location - Venice )
Friedrich Duerenmatt
Sherlock Holmes (nearly everything, the original stories, the new ones. I'm not reading this stuff, I'm inhaling it )

SF:
Isaac Asimov
Stephen Baxter
Andreas Eschbach
Wolfgang Jeschke
H.D. Klein
The Babylon5-novels
the Fandy-novels from SG1 and SGA
the 4400-novels
Perry Rhodan (hey, I'm German!)

Historic novels (not historicals!):
Gisbert Haefs (I can only bow before this man ...)
Umberto Eco (he has written other stuff, I know and own it. But I love his historic based stories the most)
Frederic Berger
Donna Cross
Cornelia Wusowski (the Elizabeth I. movies anyone? She wrote the novel)

Classic:
William Shakespeare
Theodor Fontane complete
Theodor Storm complete
Charles Dickens
Friedrich Schiller
Jules Verne

There's a lot of books and I'm pretty sure I missed some interesting stuff. But ... I have more than 2000 books and don't have every one here in my apartment, I also have two shelves full of books in the attic and two big boxes in the basement.

 

[Joelist]

Looks like I'm all alone in having read Larry Niven. Interesting.

 

[Illiterati]

I thought I had said that I've read Larry Niven.

I always chuckle when I read "The Flight of the Horse".



And then, there's always "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex".

ROTFLMAO!!

 

[Joelist]

Ah! Now I remember!

I have to admit I am more enamored of his "known space" stories. He wove a coherent and comprehensive universe in there.

 

[Illiterati]

Ah! Now I remember!

I have to admit I am more enamored of his "known space" stories. He wove a coherent and comprehensive universe in there.

Met him at a scifi con many years ago, and spent the day chatting with him (I was babysitting a friend's table). Lovely guy. Very funny. Ugly shirt with hot air balloons on it. LOL

 

[Gatefan1976]

@ Hyndara
I read the neverending story back in 4th grade (so, I would have been 10), Had to read it after seeing the movie. I think it was the first book I ever read that made me come to the realization that books were WAY better than movies. For those who have seen TNS, but not read it, the first movie covers about a third of the book and is probably the least interesting part of the book. In the book Bastion does not get to take "lucky" back to earth but has to rebuild the world from his own imagination, but in doing so, strips a little of himself away each time. I've got to track it down again, I don't think I've read that novel in a good 20 years!

 

[Hyndara]

I love TNS, but I also love the most of the other stuff Ende wrote. "Momo" is another good one. About the first TNS-movie ... the first is much better than the following ones. I have to say I gave up with them after the third. Back in the 80ies, when Neverending Story was a trend here, there was also written a radio play out of TNS. That's pretty good.
You know that the publishing house tried years after Ende's death to reanimate TNS? They ordered four novels from other writers. But only one of these authors had any experience with the fantasy-genre. Would it be a surprise for you that this series was dead long before the first novel was published? Okay, I've them all and I have to say they aren't this bad but they mostly negotiate the magic of Ende's original idea.

 

[mzzz]

What did you find to be the most unbelievable about them?

Somehow I get the feeling you're about to disagree with me but things I found unbelievable were (i'll spoiler):

Spoiler: spoiler

1. Lasandra/supergirl/supergenius complex
2. Blomkvist banging every girl in sight
3. Swedish intelligence forces that spy on Swedish intelligence being outsmarted and overpowered by one girl and a glorified reporter
4. The author obviously started writing himself into the story as the Blomkvist character and playing out a lot of his fantasies, in my opinion
5. The irony that this is supposed to stand up against violence towards women but devalues them by having nearly all of them fall at Blomkvist's feet

Anyways, you might disagree but I really didn't like some of those aspects. However, I thought it was an interesting read and major kudos for his style of writing, very fast paced of a style.

 

[mzzz]

Wow this portion of the forum is just dead, no one reads? Guess I'll try to revive it maybe with a popular topic.

Harry Potter discussion, ready, set, go!

 

[Graybrew1]

I have a kindle, but I usually only use it on vacation. And I must admit that when on Vacation I like guilty pleasures like chick lit. Light and Fun , no real substance. Pure fun.

 

[Illiterati]

Just started reading Game of Thrones (on my Kindle) and got the second book for when I'm done devouring this one.

 

[Graybrew1]

Just started reading Game of Thrones (on my Kindle) and got the second book for when I'm done devouring this one.

Wrong thread I know, but I am looking forward to watching it on TV.

 

[mzzz]

Just started reading Game of Thrones (on my Kindle) and got the second book for when I'm done devouring this one.

Did you like it? I forget what the first book was about. I don't really like the series as a whole cause of certain developments that I'll relay to you if you really wanna hear it. But how'd you like the first book?

 

[Illiterati]

Did you like it? I forget what the first book was about. I don't really like the series as a whole cause of certain developments that I'll relay to you if you really wanna hear it. But how'd you like the first book?

I'm really enjoying the first book. I'm a bit more than halfway through it, and if I work at it, may well finish it before episode one airs this evening.

That said, I've created a new subforum for the miniseries (and an area for discussion of the series) in its own section.

Enjoy!

 

[mzzz]

Ahhh the dust has collected in this section huh, had to freaking do a search to get here!

I'd recommend:

Gardens of the Moon - this is the first book of the Malazan series. This guy really knows how to do an epic. His world is fantastic. The deep level of mythos and all of his characters. I've had to revise my own fantasy world to add mythos and just richly layered background cause of him. His well thought out world just really put me to shame.

Now about the book, it does a medias res thing that's more of a difficult swallow than other books. However, it takes a while for you to try to punch through it. However after that, the payoff is pretty good. I think the biggest complaint about the book was how many could not get into it because of the confusion he puts you through when he just thrusts you into his world. He also shoves this one character down your throat, Paran. Maaan I hate him so much. All the other characters are cool and epic and this one lameass character is in there and at the forefront, ughhhh.

I'd recommend this one to anyone who have an interest in epic high fantasy, this one just tops all of em, well the ones I've read so far.


A Monster Calls - Patrick Ness. This one made me tear up a little, it's not really fantasy or anything just was pretty sad. I won't say too much cause that just gives away the story. It's a character development kind of story. I'd recommend it to those who are looking for some good emotional-evoking work. It's also pretty short. Makes me rethink my writing, my oh so childish in comparison writing, haha.


The Painted Man - another fantasy. I really like the magic system in this one but there were a lot of time lapses that got annoying and the uh end events with a lot of "spontaneous romance" kinda killed it for me. It turned me off for so long that I took a week break to start it up again. But the end sorta made up for it....well not really. Eh, just throwing it out there. It's pretty interesting though. I tried to read the next book but gave up cause of the blatant culture rip-off that he explores. Overall, I will just say eh.


The Way of Kings - would recommend this one to everyone into high fantasy. This one has great potential and I really like the whole set up of things to come. Plus, I just like Brandon Sanderson. If he doesn't get your motors running then, that's ok.


Would appreciate any recommendations from others here, preferably fantasy, and preferably ones that aren't silly/politics-heavy ones like grrm's series. Although, I could probably just go get recommendations at goodreads but their recommendation engine isn't working for me for some reason.

 

[lady_maneth]

If you count the number of books by any one author, then it's definitely Anne McCaffrey. I haven't read any of her books for a while though.

Tolkien, Rowling, Hobb, Moon, Canavan...
Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Reynolds...

 

[mzzz]

I tried to get into Pern with the first book a while back, but just couldn't get through it. Didn't like the uh romantic feelings sorta being channeled through respective dragons and owners? I forget exactly what made me lose interest. It's also a bit long, shame she's no longer around; she seemed very creative with her impressive world she built.

 

[lady_maneth]

I liked the first two series and Moreta (set in the 6th Pass, a few hundred years before the main story) just fine, even if they're just bodice-ripping romances in a soft sci-fi setting. Anne McCaffrey objected strenuously to being called a fantasy writer, even if her "science" was very unscientific at best and let's face it, most people will think fantasy when they see a dragon on the cover of a book. Of course, to modern eyes her attitudes to women may seem rather offensive (stay at home, get married and have as many babies as your body can manage, or if you get into a position of power as Weyrwoman, you're doomed to mating the man your dragon chooses for you, risk miscarriage if you do get pregnant, and at the very least lose custody of your children because dragonriding and the emotional tie to your dragon prevents you from having a normal family relationship with your kids (that said, it seems to me all children in a Weyr, no matter what the status of their parents, seemed to be raised communally in a créche rather than by their parents)... I was willing to let all that go because the story was set in another time on another world, but the attempt in the later books (especially Masterharper of Pern which was set before and concurrently with Dragonflight) to retcon a more advanced society where women could actually get an education, made all the achievements of Lessa (and most particularly Menolly in the YA Harper Hall books) lose most of their significance.

Of course, many people tend to forget that AMC wasn't just about Pern. I particularly enjoy her Talent books, about a privileged (and hated) minority of people with powerful PSI talents, even if they're riddled with internal inconsistencies. AMC is great at world-building, and is able to make most of her characters come truly alive in a reader's mind, but she's not good at keeping plotlines straight and often falls into the trap of allowing her favorite characters do things they shouldn't be able to, according to the rules of the world she's set up, or then she'll just change the rules to make something seem plausible. Also, she has trouble keeping people's ages straight, and has been known to resurrect a character who died in the last book...