I completely agree with Munk. Room is amazing; I’d definitely recommend it.

I think I’ve heard people talking about Room. A lot of people have probably already read it, but I love The Perks of Being a Wallflower

I recently read this book “Bumped” which I thought was neat because of it’s views on the world as it could be.

Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You by Peter Cameron. If you like John Green (which, obviously we all do), or The Perks of Being A Wallflower, any books like that, you will LOVE this. It’s about a very smart guy who doesnt want to go to the prestegious university he has been accepted to, and instead wants to move to the midwest and live in an old victorian house.

It’s one of those hard-to-explain but amazingly written novels that I wish everyone would read.

Fun Home! Yes! I recommend that one too.

And since we’re talking about gay people writing graphic novels, I also recommend Howard Cruse’s Stuck Rubber Baby. It’s about a Southern town in the sixties and how the black and gay communities there interact.

Has anybody read Lili Wilkenson’s “Pink”? It’s kind if fluffy content-wise but it’s SO NERDFIGHTERTASTIC. Seriously, she drops so many random Nerdfighter references in there…

Ok, this might go on a bit but I’ve been reading some really good stuff recently…

I have a thing for sci fi from the 40s and 50s, so I’ll mention John Wyndham – pretty much everything by him is good, barring “Plan for Chaos” (let’s just say there’s a reason it was unpublished for sixty years), but I would particularly recommend “The Day of the Triffids” and “Chocky”, both of which are just fantastically amazing and unsettling in a 1984-kind-of-way, which I like in a book.

Staying in the 50s, “I Am Legend” is amazing. Like, seriously so much better than the movie (isn’t the book always, though?) and it’s really interesting because you would think that a book with only one character, for the most part, would get boring. But it doesn’t.

Finally: anything/everything by Christopher Brookmyre. He’s a Scottish author who mainly writes crime fiction and satire, but he also wrote a book called “Pandaemonium” which is about death and demons and alternate dimensions, and also people and teenagers and how we relate to one another, and how relationships can change, and how people can change. It’s like TFiOS in that it’s a feel ALL the emotions kind of book. It’s just so funny, and really incredible.

Sorry if this one is too mainstream, but MOBY DICK by Melville. Whales, crazy guys with one leg, what could be better?

Anybody here a Vonnegut fan ? God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater is probably my favorite book by him, but I don’t think that’s very common.

Really depends on what you’re into reading. I love fantasy books.
If you want to be kept busy for a couple a of months then read The Wheel of Time series. 13 books long so far with the final book to be released at the end of the year.
If your more into normal fiction then every single thing written by Stephen King should satisfy you xD

Ugh, I’m sorry Stig, but I tried reading Moby Dick and I could just not get into it.

Short Stories: Now, I like myself some good Ray Bradbury. I actually didn’t like short stories until I had read his “Martian Chronicles” and “Dandelion Wine”.

Graphic Novels: Watchmen. It is a phenomenal book with one of the best “Oooohhh Snap!” moments I have ever read.

Books: I recently read American Gods, by Neil Gaiman, which I quite enjoyed. But I have to say, I’m a fan of the short, dark classics; The Invisible Man and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde were both fun reads. I’m also a fan of Garth Nix, and I pretty much devour anything he writes (the Old Kingdom was a great series.) Oh, also, (on a more humorous note) Bartimaeus is a hilarious series, written from the viewpoint of a demon.

If you couldn’t tell by now, I’m quite into the dark/funny fantasy genre. If you have any that fall into this category, let me know!

I would deInitely recommend Freakonomics by Steven Levitt. He brilliantly compares different scenarios from real life and explores the economic factors behind trends (two scenarios compare teachers and sumo wrestlers). Despite my description, it is quite enthralling and not your average econ book.

Donna Tartt’s The Secret History is one of the best books I’ve ever read. It’s smart, it’s really well written and it’s a real page turner, one of those books that stays in your head for a long while after you’ve finished it. It’s incredibly good. It’s about a little group of classic students at a small elite college. The main character gets into the college and into the group but the group isn’t exactly a good influence. It’s full of great characters and I just love this book a lot.

Also Naïve. Super. by Erlend Loe is absolutely brilliant and I can almost guarantee it’s very different from anything you’ve read before. :>

Can I just say I think it’s awesome that I recommended Moby Dick here and John is now reading it. John, you sly fox, I know you’re here now.

The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie was fantastic and hilarious when I read it. Perhaps a high PG-13 to low R as far as content, just as a disclaimer, but it was one of the most enjoyable things I’ve ever read. Because Hugh Laurie is brilliantly hilarious.

As for other books, I’m only half-way through Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, but it’s amazingly good so far – a modern 1984.

Of course, at least the first book of The Hunger Games is great. Violent and great. I haven’t read the other two books yet, but I recommend you just stop a few sentences shy of the end. That way you won’t have to worry about a dumb cliffhanger and it’s a perfect ending for the book – there’s no need for the rest of the series.

And those are the only other books I’ve read recently enough to remember them, although I have a massive reading list that I hope to get through at some point in my life. Haha.

I just suddenly remember some sci-fi books that I used to love, by Nancy Farmer. ‘The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm’ is about kids trying to escape their kidnappers in futuristic Nigeria, and the mutated team of investigators sent to find them. ‘The House of the Scorpion’ is about a little boy that’s being raised by an opium drug lord, and there’s cloning and adventuring and etc. Amazon informs me that the writing is for those 12 and up, so not super sophisticated, but I just really remember loving them, so I think they’d be a good day’s read, no matter how old you are!

If I’m continuing on a young adult/ children’s book theme, I have to recommend the fantasy trilogy ‘The Wind on Fire’ by William Nicholson. Its really captivating, a great story, and with wonderful wonderful description. There’s a description of a dance in the second book that I still go back and read occasionally because it’s so powerful.

Go figure I’m 20 years old and I’m recommending books for 11-14 year olds. Contrary to when I was 11-14 and I was reading Wheel of Time and then Sword of Truth! I suppose I should put out a mention to ‘The Sword of Truth’ series by Terry Goodkind. Beware though, there are 13 of them, and the quality does deteriote somewhat when it becomes clear that the battle between good and evil in the books is a straightforward allegory of the Cold War.

• This reply was modified 82 days ago by  Penny.

Non fiction: Kon-Tiki
Fiction: The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Both are really really good. Kon-Tiki is more of a fun to read enjoyable book, and the Hunchback of Notre Dame is more one you read to think about. Both are really good though.

P.S. If you read the Hunchback make sure you go and watch Disney’s version immediately after.

• This reply was modified 81 days ago by  Ember.

So there’s this super cool book called The Facttracker written by Jason Carter Eaton. It was given to me by a friend a few years ago and I haven’t heard about anyone who has ever read it since. It seems like a middle grade book on the outside, and it is appropriate for kids of that age, but it is one of the most thought-provoking, beautiful books I have ever read. It’s about this guy called the Facttracker whose job it is to collect all of the facts that ever were (I.E. Alaska is the biggest state in the United States, That man over there’s name is Bob, etc.) and this other guy called The Just Small Enough Boy, who lost all his facts. (Including his name.) Basically, this big disaster happens and this guy named Ersatz comes to town who causes all sorts of mischief. It’s kinda hard to explain.

I also just finished The Great Gatsby, which was really good. It’s an easier read than most classics and it’s beautiful and funny and heartbreaking.

As for graphic novels: The Scott Pilgrim Books. The movie was fantastic, but the series is even more incredible. You will laugh. You will cry. You will start talking like the characters. It’s ridiculous.
Also, the Buffy books are good, but you really should watch the TV show first. HOWEVER THAT IS A TV SHOW AND NOT FIT FOR THIS TOPIC SO BLAH.

About…two, three years ago I went into my college library, saw a book with a goregous cover on the new books stand and rented it simply because I wanted to carry that pretty, hardcover book around.

It was SOOOO much better read. The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson is dry, bitter, witty, creative, romantic, and just intelligent. It’s the author’s first book which took him seven years to write then he’s like, “Meh, I don’t need to write another book. I mean…maybe, but don’t need to do this writer thing.” Which is almost irrating to have someone be brilliant at something they’re not super dedicated too, but hey, he spent YEARS getting these details as right as possible and it paid off.

He also spent a year (I think) in Japan and it shows. The book never goes to Japan but a major side character is from Japan and the narrator knows a LOT about Japan. It’s very interesting for a non-anime perspective of the land.

ofcourse you should have already read ‘miss peregrines home for peculiar children’, and Jonathan Safrans ‘Extremely Loud and incredibly close’ is just one that you should have read.
Oh and the book from Mith Albom is also a great one ‘The Five People you Meet in Heaven’ even for atheïsts

Peter and Wendy by J. M. Barrie. Everyone loves Alice in Wondreland, but Peter
Pan tends to go unnoticed sometimes.

• This reply was modified 73 days ago by  Jocelyn.

I read Raising Stony Mayhall by Daryl Gregory a while ago and I thought it was fantastic. It’s about a dead baby boy that a woman finds on the side of the road shortly after a zombie outbreak that didn’t result in an apocalypse. She doesn’t want to leave this baby on the side of the road, despite it being dead, so she takes it. Then the baby starts moving and growing. It’s a really interesting take on zombies.

Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Mayberry was also a great zombie book. It’s based twelve years after the apocalypse in a community/town that has rebuilt.

I’ve been reading a lot of zombie books lately xD

another great book was “fifteen” writen by bevery cleary. it was writen in the 1950′s and is a romance. it is kind of funny when you read how the characters in the book wear suits and white gloves because they are going for dinner in the city and ride in a fixed up model A ford. it was a good read from a girls point of view in small town america in the 1950.