Forums » Smalltalk » Favorite book (fiction)?

Mine changes a lot. I think right now it is the Ender's Game series of books... Ender's Game and all the books that followed it. I like that author, Orson Scott Card.

Okay, but Ender's Game is sooooooooooooo good!!!!!!!!! It's genius; one of the best sci-fi series I've read. I love it. It's got a Band of Brothers mixed with spaceships and aliens sort of vibe...so good!

Currently, my favorite is my 3 in 1 book of the Shannara Chronicles, the first three books. Personally, I think those are the best out of the 60-something installments. A genetic line and Elfstones can only go so far, you know? But the beginning trilogy is amazing. The Sword of Shannara is so much like LotR I'm amazed it was published. But the Elfstones and the Wishsong....ohmigosh, to die for! Post-apocalyptic earth with high fantasy elements?! TAKE MY SOUL.

Since I was 13 and read it for the first time my favorite book has been:

Queenie by Michael Korda

Queenie Kelley, a mixed race Indian girl from Calcutta, whose past is her most dangerous secret, rises to the Hollywood apex as the glamorous Dawn Avalon.

Ooooh I don't know if I could pick just one. . . it would probably be Warm Bodies, by Isaac Marion. I loved the movie, too, but the book was a lot more philosophical, and it was so beautifully written.

But Jurassic Park is a forever-classic, and had a lot of influence on me as a writer, as well as the Darkly Dreaming Dexter series. I went through a phase where I binge-watched the Dexter series after school, and devoured the books during class. I couldn't get enough of it.

A tie!

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion
This actually is my more-favorite of the two books; The writing style is phenomenal and there are a few quote in here that are just stunning and oh my god this book is amazing

and

Infected by Scott Sigler
So after like 6th grade I didn't read anything for pleasure up until junior year of highschool, when I found this book in passing during a random trip to the book shoppe and I am SO GLAD that i picked this up; I just non-stop read for the next two years directly because of this book. It completely re-sparked my love for reading that school had made me lose, and it will always hold a special place in my heart.

I knee jerk responded to this post and then went back and read the responses out of curiosity and I am so glad I did
this book is so wonderful hnnngh

Oh heckin' yeah! ;-; I fell in love with that book so hard. I even bought another copy just to go through and highlight my favorite quotes. I swear that entire book is like one big long poem, everything is just so beautiful and wonderful. I think it mostly hit home because when I was younger, I struggled with the sort of depression that just saps all your emotions and leaves you apathetic to pretty much everything. So when I read that one quote from the book where R says he years for exclamation points, but is drowning in elipses... like oh man. Chills. I connected so hard to that entire feeling, and the entire concept behind the story.

Oof. I don't think I can narrow it down to just one.

The Princess Bride, William Goldman
The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
The Darkangel Trilogy, Meredith Ann Pierce

The former two might be more familiar to people in their film adaptations (and I adore both of those, too), but the books are absolutely excellent. TPB is funny and heartwarming and thrilling all in turn, and the presentation of the story as an abridged version of a larger tale (it's not actually) is really well done. TLU is just... heartrending, and sometimes a little absurd, but all the more beautiful for it. Beagle's prose is just magnificent.

The third, containing The Darkangel, A Gathering of Gargoyles, and The Pearl of the Soul of the World, is somewhat less known, maybe, but also incredibly beautiful. It starts off, ostensibly, with a book about a gorgeous vampire - and yes, I can imagine the look you're making - but it ends up not being very much about the vampire at all. It's quite different from a lot of its more modern peers (the first book was published in '82, and I think the last in '90), and I adore all of it in a way I can't really adequately describe without feeling like I'm going to ruin it, hahah.

Wow. Ok, I might just have to read them because you really make them sound great. I shouldn't say that, because I like NEVER follow through when I say something like that ("I will watch that movie/read that book"), but I may do it because you really make a good pitch for it. And, honestly, our tastes are SO similar, I'm sure I would like it.

Thank you folks, for all of these. They all sound great! Keep 'em coming!


Someone mentioned Brave New World once in a PM so I'm going to mention it here too. And the fact that the full text is available for free online is awesome. That book is crazy interesting and almost more relevant than when it was written! It's a classic of dystopian science fiction. The person I was talking with was like "It's hard to explain why it's good. You just have to read it," and I think that's the best way to describe it. It's hard to explain. You just have to read it. Lol

I loved the Shanarra books....Par and Ohm, and Brin...Amberle....fills me with nostalgia.

I think The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan....the second book of his series called The Wheel of Time....is one book I literally could not put down and when I finished reading it, I thought it was the greatest adventure I had ever been on. It's a shame I can't read it for the first time ever again.

I've been a Lord of the Rings fan since... well, High school. I have to say that right now, with the release of 'Port of Shadows' as a 'wedge-book' between book one and book two of the Black Company series by Glen Cook, has propelled that series back up there. Another book series I like is the Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erickson.

There, I named three book series!

Christine, Pet Cemetery, (or anything else by Stephen King)!

Mine is Ranger's Apprentice!!

Written by John Flanagan, this series is set in the medieval time period. It follows an orphan, who is chosen ti be a ranger's apprentice. The books are full of action, a little romance, and a lot of chumor. It is quite the page turner, and u still cant put it down, even after reading the series quite a few times. It has two offshoot series as well.

The Fale Prince is also a good one. Basically this orphan boy is taken in along with other boys to act as a prince presumed dead years ago. I dont wwnt to give too much away

I honestly could go on and on with the books I love. I read that much

It doesn't matter what I read, I still always seem to come back to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. It's an eclectic one. Like Charles Dickens wrote Harry Potter but with bored adults as protagonists.

On the other hand, I don't know. I still love the core 14 Oz books.

It’s probably his most well-known book, but I love it just the same: The Shining, by Stephen King.

I really dug Ender growing up, but as I got older I much preferred the books about Bean. OSC also wrote a weird, funky five book sci-fi/fantasy series about a group of humans coming back to Earth that I liked.

Top two favorite series are all of the Mercyverse books ny Patricia Briggs, and the Jack Reacher series by lee child.

Top for action is anything written by Matthew Reilly. Very influential in my own writing style for how over-the-top it can be in even the simplest action scenes.

And Hunter S. Thompson for how not to take anything too seriously.

Just discovered a novelization of Supernatural! It's set in season 6, a little while after Sammy (my baby! ) got his soul back...it feels like fanfiction, being honest, but I think it's really good all the same.

Also rereading C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy....would highly recommend. It's got the same sort of idea that Narnia had, but in space. Not to mention it has this incredible spiel on language that I adore...kriff, I'm such a nerd!

Gone with the wind. The grapes of wrath. Anything by john Steinbeck.