Recommend a book for me

There are just somethings that man has to do to call himself a man. One of those things is reading a good book. I haven't read a book in ages and just now I got the urge to read a masterpiece of someone's mind.

So could you please help and recommend a good book so I can run to the library and start busting through pages and pages of literary magic?

I don't really care what's the book about as long as it isn't some dumbed down book for masses.

im reading the complete Sherlock Holmes stories at the moment and i highly recommend it.

1984.

A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking

@BeachThunder: Thanks, but I've already read that one. I liked it probably more than I should've.

@jetsetwillie: @ShiftyMagician: Great, this was the kind of stuff I was looking for. Both are obvious recommendations but I haven't gotten around reading them.

Great Expectations is well worth a look in my opinion.

The Hunger Games.

The alchemist

The bible

The Hunger Games, The Road, Metro 2033.

Great Expectations is well worth a look in my opinion.

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I'd says the girl with the dragon tattoo, the road, game of thrones, 1q84

Seeing as this is a gaming site, I would have to recommend one of the best books I read this year "Ready Player One". It is on several top ten books of 2011 lists. The Road is great too. Oh and Dany, you have lost all credibility saying Great Expectations is one of the worst books you ever read. Although it isn't Dickens' best novel (That goes to David Copperfield, a wonderful book if you are willing to invest over 1,100 pages), it is still a great classic.

The Accidental Billionaires (the book the Social Network film was based on) is pretty great, very well written.

The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James is stunning if you're in the mood for some intellectual stimulation.

In Cold Blood is probably one of my favorite books. Truman Capote wrote it.

American Psycho is the most fucked up book I've ever read, but it's so good.

@ DrPockets000: I forgot about "In Cold Blood", I haven't read that book in years. Amazing, book, I might have to download it on the ole Kindle.

Someone creates one of these threads every few days now, it seems. Why don't you prowl the 'What are you reading' thread and look for ideas there. Plus this is vague as hell, and it'll just turn into everybody recommending the same books that are always touted.

Anyway, I'm currently jumping between 3 books:

Firstly, Faulkner's Light in August, which I'm only a few pages into and have absolutely no impression of whatsoever yet.

The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands, which I'm nearing the end of. It started slowly, though I started eating it up after the first 100 pages or so. Not a huge King fan - I don't think he's a particularly great writer, and he often seems to lose both voice and plot a little - but I've really enjoyed TDT so far.

...and I've been jumping in and out of Hemingway's collected stories. It's various shorts, uncompleted works and so on. I've always been a great fan of his economical style, and he tends to deal with typically masculine themes, so I've been enjoying it.

Would definitely recommend both the latter two, specifically The Dark Tower series.

Boneshaker.

Currently reading 11/22/63. So far it's really good but very different from other King novels. But yeah, I would definitely recommend The Dark Tower series.

Said it before and I will say it again: The Night Angel Trilogy

Just finished The Protrait of Dorian Gray. It was fantastic, highly recommended. And you can get it for free!

The book I'm reading right now is called "The Universe In A Single Atom" by the Dalai Lama. Excellent read if you're into the whole science vs. religion debacle.

Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco

@matthias2437: @N7: So Hunger Games is good?

@leftie68 said:

Seeing as this is a gaming site, I would have to recommend one of the best books I read this year "Ready Player One". It is on several top ten books of 2011 lists. The Road is great too. Oh and Dany, you have lost all credibility saying Great Expectations is one of the worst books you ever read. Although it isn't Dickens' best novel (That goes to David Copperfield, a wonderful book if you are willing to invest over 1,100 pages), it is still a great classic.

I never felt more bored reading a classic.

Crime and Punishment, can't believe I forgot that book. Has to be one of my favorites.

The Diceman. It's an amazing book. A real book for men, not little girls.

@Dany: Then I apologize, if you thought it was boring that is one thing (I can see how if you can't relate to some of the characters it could come across as boring), but it definitely isn't a bad book. It just might not have been for you. And Crime and Punishment is a great book.

Dave Mustaine's autobiography Mustaine: A life in metal (or Heavy Metal Memoir in the US i think). I'm a huge Megadeth fan so I might be bias but from a purely critical point of view the book is really well written and fun to read. Also any of Neil Peart's books, my personal favorite being Ghost Rider. It is a good and touching, personal story that gives a great insight into the mind of one of my favorite musicians

Anything by Chuck Pahahniuk (the guy who wrote Fight Club). Survivor is probably my favorite of his books.

Find yourself one of the billion or so Edgar Allen Poe collections and read 'em with the lights down low...

Don Quixote is beezer. My all time favourite!

anything by john dos passos

jack london, sea wolf / burning daylight

once and future king by t h white

arthur millers short stories

1001 nights

borges' short stories

The Dharma Bums 
 Dispatches 

Thanks, but I've already read that one. I liked it probably more than I should've.

Valis - PKD

In the Skin of a Lion - Michael Ondaatje

Island - Huxley

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - HST

I've been reading a lot of Elie Wiesel lately. The Night trilogy is absolutely amazing, but it can be hard to read. I also recommend The Sonderberg Case or, to a slightly lesser extent, The Oath. Admittedly, they all deal with antisemitism or are related to the holocaust to an extent. Still, Wiesel's books are shockingly honest. I've never read a book (Night) that made me question my own moralities, ethics, and choices more than it.

Other than Wiesel, I've fallen madly in love with P.D. James's Children of Men. Finally, I recommend everybody read Modern Man in Search of a Soul by Carl Jung. Even if you end up thinking Jung is a heretical lunatic, it's worth reading.

Game of Thrones, True grit, World war Z

@Mogoping said:

Game of Thrones, True grit, World war Z

I read True Grit for my ENGWR class and I have to say it was one of the quickest reads I've had. This isn't to say the novel is particularly short, but Charles Portis writes in a way that makes you want to keep reading. It's absolutely brilliant.

@Rappelsiini:

Hyperion by Dan Simmons.

Your looking for a master piece?!

This.

How about Dubliners by James Joyce? Some great short stories.

Slaughterhouse Five is my favourite book, I think. Anything by Vonnegut is great.

Michael Ondaatje's The Collected Works of Billy the Kid is a great, meta, semi-historical collection of poems / articles / photos of The Kid.

The Black Company by Glen Cook

The whole Books of the North trilogy is great. Go read them.

The Four Hour Work Week

I would recommend a game of thrones if you havent already read it. Ive just got into it after seeing the HBO series and it is fantastic!

@Nightriff said:

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

This series is a strong contender for the most poorly written books of the modern age. I don't know if that's a failure of the translation or if some sort of copyright laws regarding posthumous works of authors prevented it from being improved when it was translated or what the problem is, but just so damn poorly written. Also, the series it is contending with? That Twilight series, which actually uses one of the stupidest lines I've ever seen written in the English language referencing someone's "smoldering butterscotch eyes". I don't care for the inaccurate and convenient "hacking" in it, either. I know that shouldn't matter, but in an era when you have people like Neal Stephenson getting it so right and with such a wealth of information and experts out there to guide you in getting it right in your novel, you should get it right.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. All 5.

Moby Dick by Melville.  Lesser minds may attempt to disparage it, but it's truly a total fucking masterpiece.

The Strain Trilogy (The Strain, The Fall, The Night Eternal)

World War Z

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Anything by Chuck Palahniuk my favorites are:

Survivor, Diary, Snuff, and Rant

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
I'm tempted to call it The Road of the Sea. Dark, sad, and depressing. Read it on strong days. Also, I'm assuming you have read The Road. If not . . well, log off and go fucking read that shit, now.

1Q84
A great piece of Japanese science fiction set in 1984 Tokyo that is a little bit mind-bending.

Extra Lives: Why VIdeogames Matter

Almost a sort of love-letter to videogames by a guy from PSU. One of the best books I've read on the subject of games in a very long time.

Ready Player One

Really nostalgic science fiction with a bit of Blade Runner, Multiverse, 80s/90s gaming nostalgia. Cleverly written and the audiobook version (all of these books are probably available on audible.com if you like to listen in circumstances where you can't read them) is narrated by Wil Wheaton.

Public Parts

Jeff Jarvis looks at the current and future impact of privacy (and exposing elements of ourselves and our lives to the world). Though I don't agree with everything he says, he is a compelling speaker and writer who approaches the subject from a positive point of view, rather than the "we're all fucking doomed, because privacy is the most vital thing and we're giving it up" view that I, myself, tend to share.

What Would Google Do?

Another interesting book by Jeff Jarvis that focuses on the mindset and business of Google.

In The Plex

Another look (this time, by Steven Levy) at the inside of Google, how they work, and how they impact us.

Daemon / Freedom(TM)

A sort of "massive globally networked computer system becomes sentient" story (I always dig those, along the lines of . . . say, Colossus).

Bill Bryson

Almost everything written by Bill Bryson is worthwhile.

Ni**er: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word

The book employs the actual uncensored word in its title, but I'm not going to write that here, because I'd like to avoid having that associated with a search on my name in any context. Anyway, it's a fantastic book by Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy. It investigates almost every conceivable aspect of the word throughout history. Utterly fascinating and I'd suggest it should be part of high school curriculum, everywhere.

Zombie Economics: A Guide to Personal Finance

A sort of plug, here. A great little personal finance guide written by my best friend and Lisa Desjardin from CNN this year. It's written from the perspective of surviving a zombie apocalypse and the narrative builds around learning the elements of personal finance. Great book for people in high school or college, for sure, and a good starting point for older people who need a real nudge in the right direction to start treating their money right.

Others...

I won't bother telling you to read Neal Stephenson, Neil Gaiman, Issac Asimov, Heinlein, etc. I assume you already have a solid grasp on the greats and don't need to be told they're worth reading. Also, I probably could have gone on for about twenty more pages worth, but I figured I had to stop somewhere. This is a good random selection of worthwhile reading, though.

The Golden Compass (Northern Lights in the UK), The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass

Atlas Shrugged. It's huge though, so you might want to wait until you have a bit of spare time. Christmas, perhaps.