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agreed, watership down is more than just a story about rabbits, few people seem to see beyond it's surface and regard it as a childrens book, i read it again recently and was thoroughly enthralled by it

Someone already mentioned Herman Hesse so I'll just say that anything by him is worth a read.

My picks:

<i>Collages</i> by Anais Nin - one of the most passionate writers of the 20th century.

<i>Things Fall Apart</i> by Chinua Achebe - great story of how British imperialism destroyed African villages and culture.

<i>A Happy Death</i> by Albert Camus - great example of a man chosing to live life on his own terms.

I can reccomend this book as well.
Also check out "Cuba Libre" aslo by Elmore Leonard... but stay faaar away from "Get Shorty"
Hey..they can't all be winners.

Another book I really enjoyed is
Twilight Eyes by Dean Koontz

qoute:
"Illuminatus is a bear just because in any 20 pages, it will have changed perspective and narrators about 15 times. To make up for that, the trilogy is loaded with tons of sex, craziness and humor"

I agree that it was a tough read, especially since there were no real chapters or breaks in a page that would hint to the conversation and events moving elsewhere to other speakers. Once you get used to it though, its a great read. I think what I liked most about the book was that it seemed as if one of the writers constantly wrote the book while on acid and the other one was probably just high the whole time. K so maybe this doesn't sound like that good of a book but it is, you'll just have to trust me.

Oops- for anyone paying attention:

Peirs Anthony wrote the "Tarot" trilogy... not Asprin.

Apparently, i needed aspirin when i submitted that one.
Apologies

"The Liar" by Stephen Fry (the British actor). Incredibly hillarious storytelling.

Being an English major I have a great excuse to read a lot of wonderful works of literature as well as some less literary works in my spare time :D

I would highly recommend Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize winning novel "The Hours." The style of his prose matches that of Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway", the book that "The Hours" is centered around. It's a marvelous read.

I would also recommend Edith Wharton's "Summer." If you've read "Ethan Frome", think of it as the "hot" version of that ;)

I also adore anything by Thomas Hardy--"Tess of the D'Urbervilles", "Far From the Madding Crowd", and "Jude the Obscure."

As for less serious reading, I recommend the two Bridget Jones books. Great for a laugh. :)

The Talisman and its sequel, The Black House, by stephen king and peter straub

Catch 22, Cryptonomicon, Jennifer Government, Gravity's Rainbow, Good Omens

Inherit the Stars by James Hogan and its sequals.

I can't get over how much I am enjoying the Harry Potter books.

No one has said Huck Finn yet.

Les Miserables.

Inherit the Stars is an incredible book.

hit man by lawrence block

The source of my signature quote, "Still Life With Woodpecker," by Tom Robbins.

The only one I haven't seen listed (A+ to vermin for Dan Simmons and A fucking triple plus to Grondar for CoD...funniest book in history, bar none) would be House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski. Mind fuck par excellence. It's a mighty read, at 800 pages with loads of footnotes and appendicies, but it's not what you think. It's never what you think.

I recommend Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Not like this is one is an unknown, but I would be remiss if it wasn't brought up sooner or later.

i have found that i cannot put down stephen king books

my favorite are the gunslinger series, prolly the best books i have ever read, after i am done with them i think about them for weeks, that is a sign of a good book.

also dream catcher was a great book, does anyone know if the movie was any good?

At last someone mentioned Catch 22. Not particularly obscure but my favourite book of all time, so far anyway. Chapter 39- The Eternal City is one of the the most moving passages I have ever read, when will people learn. We are all subject to Snowden's secret.

"The Godfather" by Mario Puzo, great book. its as good or better than the movie.

Terry Pratchert, the discworld series. Very funny, I've read these lots of times.

Harry Potter books are ok - I gave them a go, and while not amazing, they did enough to make me read them all.

I'm on a fiction kick now. Recently finished "The Kingmaker" by Brian Haig (son of Alexander Haig of 80s fame.) Very good (gave it an 8 out of 10.)

Really well written, and a good modern espionage writer (cross the wit of Nelson Demille and the intrigue of Robert Ludlum (and then make the storyline interesting) and there you have it.

Bad recent book Martin Cruz Smith's "Red Square" - espionage too, I think. No continuity at all. Worst book I never got more than 25% through, The Sound and the Fury by Faulkner. Maybe my brain is miswired, but it made zero sense.

KBilly - Have you read Omerta by Puzo? That's a pretty good one as well with very loose ties to the Godfather series.

I have to throw in a second vote for Ender's Game by OSC.

Also Siddhartha by Herman Hesse is probably the most thought-provoking book I've ever read.

Im currently reading or read and recomend:

-The beach
-Fight club by phalinuk (SP..?)
-The hobbit + lord of the rings trilogy
-Flesh and Machines (non-fiction)
-The universe in a nutshell by Hawking (non-fiction physics)
-1984 was very good
-Into the wild stirred lots of emotions (based on a true story)
-Rich dad poor dad by kiyosaki(guide to money management, everyone should read it...)

I love these topics. lots of the books in my collection have come from topics such as these. So many times people tend to stick to buying only what they feel comfortable with and used to reading. I try to look at buying books like this: I think that just about any book out there is worth reading or might hold some slight sence of good knowledge, but there are so many to chose from. I think that if you get even 1 recomendation for a book, especially when from a trusted forum like this, that it would be worth looking into. Best of luck
-tim

Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlin(sp?)

Excellent. Give it a whirl.

The Art of War

It has a _lot_ of applications.

MAN! You just said everything I was going to say! George RR Martin and Kurt Vonnegut! With Ishmael, I heard about it from a friend that was reading it, but if you read it and liked it I think I will too!

Also Read Fight club, SM 101 by Jay Wiseman, and Breaking the girl by Kim Corum (short but sweet!)

best books ever written:

Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neal Postman (this is totally a book dependant on mood, though)

Cryptonomicon by Stephenson (or anything he's written in fact)

Anything by Palahniuk

Anything by Gaiman

The Old Man and the Sea by Hemmingway
(It doesn't get much better than that)

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

William Gibsons books have been represented. But there's Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead at the top of my list.
Also Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins books.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Rober Pirsig should hold an avid reader for a couple of weeks.

Palahniuk is great stuff.

However, if I had to recommend a book if you could only read one in your entire life, go with Dave Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. This is best best book I have ever read.

the movie was alright. i havent read the book, but the movie felt like there was just too much plot in the book to explain the movie in a good way.

I Am Legend is good.

So is the Song of Fire and Ice series.

Non-Fiction=Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea.

Seeing how many people here have mentioned it, I am considering the "Snow Crash" book. - Question - should I bother -
I am not big into sci-fi or anime, and only made it through one Heinlein book (The Moon is a ...) and did not enjoy it all that much.

Should I still give it a go - is it one of those books that transcends genres and is enjoyable to a wider audience than usual?

Thanks

I’ll my tupense worth as well into the fray.

No-one mentioned any Iain M banks yet (or just plain Iain for such classics as the wasp factory, a bit sick in parts I’ve been told but I just found it enthralling) so I’ll put in excession as it’s a lot of fun to read.

Other Sci-fi (pronounced sciffy by Iain Banks himself I’ve been told [book reading by Ian Rankin who drinks with Mr Banks every so often, so I wasn’t exactly told personally]) faves of mine include Peter F Hamilton (the reality dysfunction trilogy will keep you going for a while approximately 3000+ pages of fun), although I’d suggest starting with something smaller of his like Mindstar rising to see if you like his work, I also liked Battlefield Earth by old loony tunes L Ron Hubbard (before he got religious).

Fantasy wise the already mentioned Tad Williams is a good author and I particularly like his memory sorrow and thorn trilogy as well as the otherland stuff.

Crime-wise / comedy for the British out there I strongly recommend Christopher Brookmyre, although for the non brits it can be difficult as it can be dialect orientated (not as bad as Irvine Welsh). He writes in a similar style to Carl Hiaasen (but not set in California) if anyone reads his work (who’s also a Insomniac recommendation!).

For forensic science stuff I recommend Jeffery Deaver (the coffin dancer is simply amazing in my opinion)

I’ll also add in there Ian Rankin, who’s Rebus character has improved my whiskey knowledge no end.

Just comedy based I’ll add Practetts mate Robert Rankin, the Armageddon trilogy is especially fun to read .

Hopefully I’ve not overly repeated what others have said (I did skim everything else that had been posted)

I’ll also tack at the end that these are personnel choices and therefore may not stand up to the scrutiny of others, but hell I don’t care I read em, re-read em ands further re-read them again coz I love em. I cannot over empathise how much I love Christopher Brookmyres work, if you read this and take one bit of advise from me read his stuff, you’ll love it. In fact you can read a short story of his on the net for free at

http://www.brookmyre.co.uk/bampota.htm

Give that a go, you’ll like it. Trust me I’m a man with a lot of free time on his hands from lack of sleeping I know a good book when I find one!

The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things by Barry Glassner. :cool:

Another from me. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Stunning.

Richard Dawkin's The Selfish Gene. Very intriguing non-fiction book regarding the gene's view of evolution. Which, as Dawkin’s argues, is the only way to look at that subject.