I remember the Book Fair in my elementary school used to come on my birthday week, without fail. My parents at the time were very into the “no gifts” policy for birthdays, which was fine since I wasn’t a toy kid anyway. But luckily they never considered books to be “gifts” so my mom and dad would separately (and what they thought was secretly) slip me a little bit of money for the book fair around birthday time. It was such a magical feeling to see my library transform into something foreign and beautiful, and even now when I step into grade-school libraries I remember the smells of book fair day (bad popcorn, new printing, bubblegum crayons). Anyway, I hope that one day, if I have kids, there will still be some kind of honoring books in the way that you and I experienced, because it really was magical.

I’m not sure what kind of books you like, but if you like J.K. Rowling, I very much recommend her mystery series, The Cormoran Strike series, which she writes under her pen name Robert Galbraith. I haven’t read the third in the trilogy, but the first two had such amazing dialogue. I actually don’t usually like mysteries, but she has a way with words that makes reading seem both natural and pleasant. The third book is on my Most Wanted wishlist, but I definitely recommend starting at the beginning of the trilogy.

If you are looking for literary fiction, I would recommend anything by Yann Martel. I have many of his books on my Books wishlist, but my favorite book of his (besides Life of Pi) is called Beatrice and Virgil. It is...super weird, to be honest. But it has a poignant message while also just being an amazing story.

If you like fantasy, I recommend the Amber Chronicles. There are fifteen of them, and they are all amazing. I have the entire compendium (in one volume) on my Most Wanted Wishlist. It’s pretty cheap, and will keep you busy for hours! This is the one I put a link to, mostly because if I can only have one count towards the contest, I think I would choose this.

I also have a plethora of cookbooks and comic books that I love to recommend. I think the best cookbook I have on there is called Jerusalem. When I went to Israel, I have to admit I didn’t particularly like the food much because I didn’t have the money to cook for myself and I was basically thrust onto the coast eating terrible halumi salads. This cookbook, though, is both beautiful and gives homage to a great world of cooking that often goes unnoticed. For comic books, I recommend March. It is highly political and emotional, but, as with all great comic books, its message is one that will stand all tests of time.

I hope you have a very Happy Birthday and that so many books can become special to you and help you commemorate the day.

Openings are hard as shit to do in sci-fi/fantasy. You have to basically lecture on the world without it sounding like you're lecturing them on the world: excuse me while I grab my smoke and mirrors. I'm not going to do line edits because it's view only. Instead you get my wall of text that I'm compiling on scifi/fantasy openings as I read more and more piles of it, when I should be reading something like literature (Idk, is that what the cool kids are doing?).

It's view only so my line edits will probably be limited, but I'll start with your opening two sentences.

>The café of 'Morl's Best Cuppa' was odd, green and uncomfortable to look at. It's rough exterior stood out against the trimmed vein of grey that was the rest of the city-block, like a bulb of gum beaten flat under step, ruining an otherwise pristine side-walk

Protag is looking at a building. I'm not as experienced in third person style narratives, but I'll do my best. If I was writing this in first person I'd be extremely leery of writing a description of the building for the begging portion. I do think you have an interesting world set out. There are genuinely funny moments, but it's packaged in a way that makes me want to put it down. I'd say this is due to an incomplete opening. You have characters and setting, but you don't have a problem for these characters to overcome (plot).I'm going to copy paste parts of a post that I did on sci-fi/fantasy openings that I made earlier, with significant modifications/additions (but the core idea is the same). If this is frowned upon, I'll stop. Disclaimer, I'm not saying that you should do any of these things that I suggest. This is merely my own opinions on ways to get over the initial hump that sci/fi fantasy stories face. These are some good resources/books that I've found.

In essence a good opening has three things

1. a solid hook (I know it when I see it definition)
   
2. introduction of problem (shit has to hit the fan in some way. "Walk towards bullets".)
   
3. brief introduction of setting. Number three is the trickiest. Too much info and its boring, and nothing feels like its happening. It's listening to a lecture entirely on the structure of a building, with nothing about what's going on inside. Too little and it's cliche, you're just some fantasy/sci-fi hack.
   
   This is kind of vague and bullshitty so I'll use some examples.
   
   The openings in fantasty/sci-fi books are notoriously terrible. For instance, Red Rising, an otherwise half decent thriller book has the shittiest opening that I've read in a published work. But that didn't stop him from selling books out the wazoo and getting good blurbs ("Ender, Catniss, and now Darrow"), because he knows how to write a page turner later on (I'd still recommend it even though the opening is questionable, if you enjoy cheap dystopian thrills). But damn, did the opening want to make me throw the book against the wall. It's not that he doesn't do the three things that an opening should do, it's that he switches voices within it and had several narration snaps when it's clearly HIM speaking and not the main character. I'd also say that Patrick Rothfuss' opening is extremely shitty (and he says so himself), as he takes 50 pages before anything substantial happens. Thus he went back and added a prologue so the reader would feel some sort of plot in the story. Prologues are effective in scifi/fantasy for quickly introducing a problem, if your world takes awhile to build. For instance -- Harry Potter also did this to an extent, since it had the scene with his parents dying. Some openings, like the one that I'm about to discuss, have a really solid hook and immediately grab the reader. Am I saying that you should write a prologue? No , I haven't really read enough of your story to figure that out. I'm just offering a few nuggets of advice that I've seen authors use to get over the initial hump of creating the world.
   
   I think a solid example of a good opening in a sci-fi story, that I've read recently, is the story Wool (here's a link, use the look inside function). The hook is one of the better ones I've read, something along the lines of "Holston climbed his stairs to his death." Is it a cheap trick? Yes. Do I really care, and does it add tension to an otherwise monotonous climb up the stairs? You betcha! He explains certain elements of the silo as he gets to the different actions, e.g. "I put my hand on the guardrail, worn down one flake at a time by centuries of use." He doesn't just come out and say "HEY THE SILO IS OLD LEMME TELL YOU ABOUT MY CHILDHOOD IN THE SILO AND THEN GET TO THE PLOT DAMMNIT". In your case we see some characters mostly annoyed, bored, or not really doing much. Sure the setting is engaging, but the characters, in my opinion, aren't. The pro of an exposition opening is that you can fit a lot of information into a relatively small amount of space. The con is that it's hard to present in a way that doesn't create a POV snap, a boring tell instead of show description, and it's hard to create a problem if you're trying to be an omnipotent narrator. Dune does it, but it hasn't set a trend because it's hard as shit to do. Pride and Prejudice does it, but Jane Austen is incredibly good at writing in different tones. I'll stick to my nice comfortable first person narrative right now. I'm not a good mechanical writer, or a good writer at all yet, but I'm working on it. I do worldbuilding half decently (though I'm put to shame by the people on /r/worldbuilding)
   
   Another solid opening is "Mistborn;" (here's a link) a fantastic example of a dialogue driven opening. I'd say that if a dialogue opening is done right, its exponentially more interesting than an exposition opening. The problem is making the characters feel natural. I spent quite some time on my opening hammering out the robotic narration style, but I still had to go back and write a prologue because I didn't introduce the main problem of the story properly. I problem that I had is that my characters seem to stick their fingers up their butts and don't do anything. Basically a dialogue opening is harder to do, but it's well worth the effort if you can pull it off. Dialogue is also a good way to squeeze information out of your world. Want to have an explanation about scientist, well slap a scientist in there and have your protag ask some questions about it. Don't have random flashbacks in the very begging. Think about a movie that had someone fixing breakfast, and every time they did something relatively minor there was a flashback. E.g. poured some orange juice. That reminds me of my mentor who trained me in how to write a good sci-fi opening. Going to eat some Coco puffs, like me mum used to. But me mum beat me so I angrily ate the coco puffs.
   
   The best fantasy opening that I've ever read is Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. I'd recommend taking a peek at it here. He casually just strolls in, quickly establishes two characters, a problem, and a setting in half a page. It's brilliant. I can't say I've read the rest of it though, but it's on my list of things to read. The only complaints that I've heard about Lies (aside from the usually fantasy grumbling about tropes), is that the heist narrative is too lowly for such a talented writer. I think that's a pretty good sign that hes doing shit right.
   
   In the words of Brian Sanderson "writing is all smoke and mirrors." In fantasy/sci-fi you have to set up scenes that are more or less infodumping segments that feel natural to the reader. E.g. travelling from town to town, "oh theres a ghost thing over there"
   "that's not a ghost its your mum!" laughter ensues
   On the bright side, it seems like you've done some good world building, so writing the segments shouldn't be too hard. I highly recommend watching Brandon Sanderson's lectures on the youtube channel "Write about dragons." Start with the first lectures he does, because they cover a lot of mistakes that people make.
   
   Also read this article on common mistakes that editors see (link) . Watching and reading just a little bit will help you from falling into a ton of pitfalls, like I did with my first story. I spent far too long on too little words, that were absolute rubbish. Now I've been able to get at least a consistent word count down every week, with mixed reviews (some chapters are better than others.) Basically, write consistently and read often. Potential and inspiration are bullshit. Hammer out some words, get it torn apart on this sub-reddit, pick up the pieces and repeat. Make sure to give back often, this place is awesome. I think one of my better experiences was posting a basically infodumpy chapter, and had some pretty positive reviews (aside from some pseudoscience that I quickly cut, and leapt back into the warm embrace of space opera).
   
   If you get past the opening hump, this article, is a fantastic way to plan how your plot is going to unfold over the course of a novel, in a concise fashion. I wish I'd found this resource sooner, cause my planning would've been much better. (I tend to discovery write, with minimal planning.)

Fellow fan of series here! Let me see...

Young Adult
Percy Jackson series is fun (and finished, too, I think).
Artemis Fowl series isn't quite as good as Percy Jackson IMHO, but it's got a following.

Fantasy
Harry Dresden series This is one of my favorites. Harry is Chicago's only professional wizard. There are a ton of these books and they are still going strong.
Game of Thrones These are great...but unfinished. If you watch the show, reading the books does help you get even more out of the story, I think.
Wheel of Time Another good series. There is a LOT of this series and it's finished. (Thank you, Brandon Sanderson!)
Mistborn Speaking of Brandon Sanderson... This one is very good. I highly recommend reading the Mistborn books before trying the Stormlight Archive, but only because as good as Mistborn is, Stormlight Archive is even better.
Stormlight Archive Amazing. Man, these are good. The series isn't finished, but the two books that are available are some of my favorites ever.
Kingkiller Chronicles I loved the first book. I could not freakin' believe I enjoyed the second one even more. The third one is still pending.
Temeraire Dragons in Napoleonic times. Super cool premise! This one is not finished (I don't think, anyway).
Gentlemen Bastards Con men in a fantasy realm. It's pretty light on the fantasy elements. Very light, I'd say. I'd also say that it has some of the very best swearing that I've ever come across. :D

Scifi
Old Man's War I'm almost finished this one--it's amazing!

Horror/Thriller
Passage Trilogy I've heard these described as vampire books...maybe zombie books... It's apocalyptic for sure. Great books!

Mysteries
Amelia Peabody Egyptology + murder mysteries. Super fun, but trust me...go with the audiobooks for these. They are best when they are performed.
Stephanie Plum Total popcorn reads. If that's your thing, shut off your brain and just enjoy.
Walt Longmire These get particularly good as it goes along. The main character is a sheriff in modern day Wyoming. (Side note: The TV show is also great--just don't expect them to stick to the books.)

Graphic Novels (Everything recommended can be gotten in a "book" format instead of only in comic form, in case that matters. I've gotten most of these from my local library.)
Locke & Key Eerie as crap. Love the art! This one is on-going.
Y: The Last Man All the men on the planet drop dead in a day...except for Yorrick. REALLY good. This is the series that got me reading graphic novels. Plus, it's finished!
Walking Dead I am not a zombie fan...but I like these. They're not done, but I've read up through volume 22 and am still enjoying them.

Other
OutlanderI have no idea how to categorize these or even give a description that does them justice. I refused to pick it up for AGES because it sounded like a bodice-ripper romance and that's not my bag. But these are good!

I hope there's something in there that'll do for you. Have fun and read on!

Edit: Apparently, I need to practice formatting. :/
Edit 2: I forgot to add the Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentlemen Bastards #1).

I've fallen on a deep sci-fi binge, so I'm going to recommend what I've read so far (lately) and loved:

Ender Series: The sequels to "Ender's Game" are not on par with the first, but they're compelling nonetheless (except maybe Childrens of the Mind), and the Bean series (Ender's Shadow and the sequels) is GREAT. I would recommend reading the sequels, and if not, to stay with the same Ender's Game vibe, then at least read Ender's Shadow, as it opens up the story a lot more.

Foundation (Isaac Asimov): One of the groundbreaking sci-fi series. I've currently read only the first one (Foundation) and absolutely loved it. It takes up several character's point of view over the course of a lot of years. But don't worry, each character get their spot lights and they shine in it. And the universe he creates is one I'm anxious to get back once I finish with...

Leviathan Wakes (James S.A. Corey): This one I'm still reading, so I won't jump up and say: READ IT, IT'S AMAZING! But I will say this, it's long and full of twists, but it's two central characters are fun and interesting. Someone said it's like reading the best sci-fi movie there is. And it kind of is. It's full of action, suspense, some horror and fun writing. I would check it out if I were you.

Spin: I enjoyed this one. Not fanatical about it, but still enjoyable. It's a little bit too long, but the mystery around the event that occurs in the book is interesting and compelling enough to continue. The characters feel real, and the drama around it is fun.

A while ago I also read: The Forever War which I liked a lot. I like seeing humanity evolve, so this book was awesome. I hear it's a lot like Old Man's War, but I've heard better things from Forever War than Old Man's. Might be worth checking out.

Hope I was helpful!

For some reason this didn't show up the first time I posted, so sorry if it shows up twice :-)

1

2 (Snow is kind of reminiscent of rain)

3 (food related because I would serve hot meals on it; unusual because it is multifunctional)

4 is for my two year old daughter because she has the normal version, but loves it so much (probably her favorite thing) that it is now in three pieces with the cover off and losing pages every day, but this one has a carry handle and is smaller for toddlers and easier to carry around.

5 You need to read it because I've been told I need to read it.

6

7 because Catwoman

8 The picture of beauty! :-)

9 Because it's a classic. . . it's sweet, has adventure, and teamwork. . . dinosaurs.

10 because it's a sword that I will always have with me because it's a keychain

11 I'm on my 4th week of P90x, and I hate yoga day because I can't do all the moves, so I don't have the desire to do it, but this would help on moves where I am not as flexible.

12 I want these so I can make necklaces with them.

13 Because it has a swingset and a playhouse and my daughter (and when he's older, my son too) would love this, and I love them very much. So seeing them happy makes me happy :-).

14

15 seeds are much smaller than golfballs

16 Nothing smells as good as a freshly bathed baby :-)

17

18 I could practice my letters and spelling (as long as each letter was only used once) :-)

19 My current obsession is being a mom! All of my other obsessions are geeky stuff, so this is perfect!

20 I know this really needs no explanation as to why it is so grand and awe-inspiring, but here are 10 good reasons. . . First of all, it's huge because it's a rug. Second of all, it is from one of the greatest movies of all time, Star Wars Episode V. Third, it looks sooooo soft (it's so fluffy, I'm going to die). Fourth, how many people do you know who have this in their home? Fifth, it has claws. Sixth, it's smiling. Seventh, you could hide under it during a home invasion. Eighth, you could cover up with it if your power went out in a snowstorm. Ninth, (since you love cats) I bet cats love laying on a wampa rug. Finally tenth, it would be the perfect addition to this boy's nursery (I've shown this picture a lot on RAoA, but I can't help it. He's too cute!)

Bonus Item 1 will be PMd to you when I found out your real name, not if but when :-)

Bonus Item 2 Looks yummy!

fear cuts deeper than swords

This was super fun by the way! Thanks!

I highly recommend:

1. The Orphans of Chaos trilogy by John C. Wright. He really pushes the boundaries of the imagination by writing about a universe in which there are 4 different paradigms of magic/power, each of which cancels one of the others out and is canceled out by one of the others. It's an epic Titans vs Olympic Gods fantasy, and I've read it several times--which is rare for me to do.
   
   
2. Obviously read the Song of Ice and Fire series by George RR Martin if you haven't already done so! I delayed reading it a long time but then read all of them in a week and a half when I finally succumbed.
   
   
3. ALWAYS recommend The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
   
   
4. ALSO always recommend Lies of Locke Lamora and its sequels by Scott Lynch.
   
   
5. The Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix. It's YA, but pretty mature YA, and IMO could easily transition to the regular fantasy section.
   
   
6. Books by Diana Wynne Jones. She writes YA, but fantasy that I wouldn't call immature. The best word I could use to describe it would be "whimsical." If I could compare her style of fantasy to anyone's it would EASILY be the filmmaker Miyazaki. (His films include Spirited Away, Kiki's Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, etc.--he even adapted one of her books!) I think her best work is her Chrestomanci series which has 3 volumes (each volume is made up of several novellas), but she is best known for Howl's Moving Castle, which I also highly recommend (along with its sequels Castle in the Air and The House of Many Ways).
   
   
7. Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series. It's fun, original, often dark, often humorous, fast-paced, and FILLED with action. As noted by someone else, there are vampires in the universe, but they're not the central motif. There are also other scary things, like fairies, goblins, witches/wizards, demons...the list goes on and on.
   
   
8. Terry Pratchett's Discworld canon. There are many, MANY books, and they're not written in series so you can jump in almost anywhere. I recommend Small Gods to start.
   
   
9. The Sevenwaters Trilogy by Juliet Marillier, starting with Daughter of the Forest. There are also spin-off novels, though I haven't read them all. Her writing is beautiful and mystical. She almost makes me believe magic/fae could exist.
   
   
10. The Passion and The Promise (a duet) and, separately, The Alchemist by Donna Boyd. These are really, really excellently written. "Lush" would be the word I'd use. They're not hugely well known, and I find that utterly boggling considering how good they are.

I've just finished The Windup Girl, which I had been putting off for some time. It was, quite simply, the most astounding and breath-taking science fiction book I've ever read. I loved it.

However, my problem is that I buy books compulsively. Mostly hard copies, but recently I bought a Kindle and buy the odd e-book or two. I have literally hundreds of books on my "to read" list.

One near the top is A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel. I recently read her phenomenal Wolf Hall and was blown away by her skills as a story teller. I'm a bit of an armchair historian, and I'm particularly interested in the French Revolution (amongst other things), so I'm very excited by the prospects this book holds. If it's anything like Wolf Hall then I'm in for a very particular treat.

Also near the top lies Quantum - Einstein, Bohr, and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality, Manjit Kumar's much lauded recent history of the emergence of quantum mechanics. I very much enjoyed other tangentially related books on this topic, including the wonderful The Making of the Atomic Bomb and The Fly in the Cathedral, so this should be good fun and educational to boot.

Having read and loved Everitt's biography of Cicero, I'm very much looking forward to his biographies of Augustus and Hadrian.

I'm listening to an audio-book version of The Count of Monte Cristo on my iPod, which I find rather enjoyable. I've only got through the first half dozen chapters and it's already taken a few hours, so this looks to be a nice, long-term and periodic treat for when I have time alone in the car.

Cronin's The Passage keeps piquing my interest, but I was foolish enough to buy it in that lamentable format, the much cursed "trade paperback", so the thing is a behemoth. The size puts me off. I wish I had waited for a regular paper-back edition. As it is, it sits there on my bookshelf, flanked by the collected works of Alan Furst (what a wonderfully evocative writer of WWII espionage!!) and a bunch of much recommended, but as yet unread, fantasy including The Darkness that Comes Before by Bakker, The Name of the Wind by Rothfuss and Physiognomy by Ford.

Books I have ordered and am eagerly awaiting, and which shall go straight to the top of the TBR list (no doubt to be replaced by next month's purchases) include Orlando Figes's highly regarded history of The Crimean War, Rosen's history of steam The Most Powerful Idea in the World and Stacy Schiff's contentious biography of Cleopatra.

A bit of a mixed bunch, all up, I'd say.

In teen fiction or adult? I don't think I've read any adult books recently (published in last two years) that would be appropriate for a 13 year old.


Stardust: Quirky, fun and Neil Gaiman. His writing and stories are very strange so people either like them or they don't (I don't). However, my friends swear by this book.


Kingkiller: Badass hero, epic journey, epic story. Ultimately along the same difficulty as Sword of Shanara/LOTR and is probably super boring for a 13 year old.


Let me think: Game of Thrones is neither appropriate nor well written. Lackey is still amazing, but has strong homosexual and relationship themes. I think I waited to read her old stuff until I was 13, but her new stuff is just as -- well, her... Terry Brooks has a new series, but it is more political than Rothfuss. All the modern mystery/suspense is very sexual. I'm reading Abercombie right now, but don''t feel confident recommending it since I'm not done. Keyes reminds me of old-school high fantasy -- really, really dense and hard to digest for a 13 year old.

 

Popular

 

Divergent, as he already read, was quite good. Hunger Games and Maze Runner are in the same genre, but both are quite a bit darker than Divergent (stupid mind control and very Lord of the Flies-esque).

I think my best modern recommendation is:
Rick Riodran: Generally awesome teen male fiction. I've read the greek (percy) and egyptian series. They are fun and very similar to harry potter in tone.

Other

Throne of Glass: Not super popular, but definitely good! I haven't had the chance to read the sequels, but the first stuck with me.

Mistborn: water-downed Trudi Canarvan. Poor girl becomes a magician/assassin who totally kicks butt. Some almost-rape scenes (2 I think).

Intisar Khanani - I got a chance to read her newest book before it was released. She is the modern equivalent of Tamora Pierce and definitely someone to watch in the future. Great - Great author, but doesn't have an established series.

If he ends up liking the Dark Elf Trilogy -- The forgotten realms are STILL making books.

I'd say that Mortal Instruments (Girl meets demon hunter -- kind of a less cool version of Bleach), anything John Green writes (watered down Nicholas Sparks), Tiger's Curse (awesome epic adventure, but kinda creepy), and the Iron Fey series are too girly.

I recently read a free kindle book that would be awesome. It was a watered-down, less rape-y/fetishy version of The Sword of Truth. I can't find it. I'll have to get back to you on that. It had dragons and magic and bad-assery in a generic fantasy way. There was also another one with lots of dragons and he had power over them... hmmm... I might be losing my mind.

Most of the time I am "in the mood" for a certain genre or type of book. I will recommend some of my favorites that are easy to read and enjoyable. With a super short summary to see if it sparks your interest.

Fantasy:

• Name of the Wind : Great fantasy novel which follows a single character, Kvothe, who is an old innkeeper with a mysterious and illustrious past telling the story of how he became a legend. It is very well written and highly entertaining, the book is all about Kvothe as a teenager just trying to survive and becoming an arcanist. Highly recommended.
  
  
• Mistborn Trilogy : I've only read the first one. A dystopian world where ash falls from the sky every day with a centuries old tyrannical ruler. The story follows a young girl who is just trying to survive on the streets any way she can but gets caught up with revolutionists. Very enjoyable, and a unique magic system.
  
  Scifi:
  
  
• Ender's Game: This an Dune are always recommended for anyone looking to get into scifi...as well as Foundation series (which I haven't read :/). Earth has been attacked by an alien species of bugs...twice. We barely survived last time, so in order for us to prepare if it happens again Earth has started training military geniuses. Ender is one of the children chosen for training, and he is the best of the best. The story focuses on him and his story about rising through the ranks to try and save earth.
  
  
• Dune: If you want to experience a sand world with giant worms, extreme political tension, plot twists, feints within feints. I could say more, but simply saying that it is in my Top 3 favorite books says enough.
  
  
• Hitch-hiker's guide to the galaxy: Probably one of the funniest books I've ever read. It is highly regarded among this community and geeks as a whole. Do not judge it by the movie, this is a must-read book if you want a laugh.
  
  

Among Others by Jo Walton

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

I think the Dark Tower series is a must read. It starts off with The Gunslinger and continues. I think it is the best series I have ever read.

If you want to look other than fantasy/sci-fi...

Lamb by Christopher Moore is very funny, makes you think, and breaks your heart. I love it.

A Prayer for Owen Meany is one of my favorite books ever written. Everyone that I have given this book to has read it and bought it for someone else to read.

Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins is Tom Robbins at his best. It's also one of the most polarizing books I have suggested to friends and people online. You will either love it and buy the rest of Tom Robbins's books or you will hate it and never listen to me again. I hope it's the first reaction.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is an amazing book about life in high school. I haven't seen the movie yet because I enjoy this book so much that I don't want to get pissed off at a director ruining one of my favorite books.

Good Omens by Pratchett/Gaiman is certainly a pretty rockin book.

Hopefully this helps you find some new authors to enjoy!

Edited for: I will never forgive myself if I don't put in what I consider one of the best fantasy coming of age stories ever. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss is the first of the series. Read it. Do it!

Came here to say the most in depth and likely realistic protrayal of how a planet would be settled and likely how it's politics would evolve has been done by the "Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars" trilogy by kim stanley robinson.

It goes from early settlement military vs scientific type government to democratic evolutions to control issues between earth and mars (self determination) to building huge space infrastruture to suppor tthe planet like a space elevator etc to fights with terrorists about the degree of environmental distruction vs preserservation that should be allowed.

read those books.

One of the best book series I have ever read - sci fi or not. Great for political study as well as planetary engineeering and space settlement and more.

It's like having the experience of having actually done it once and then considering doing it better the second time around.
If you have any interest at all in this subject matter you simple have to read those books (and you'll love them).

It gets you your Ph.D. in "Mars settlement".

Then you'll be ready to talk without repeating what has already been extensively thought about ( not that there is anything wrong with that)


Red Mars ( book 1 of 3 link)

"In his most ambitious project to date, award-winning author Kim Stanley Robinson utilizes years of research and cutting-edge science in the first of three novels that will chronicle the colonization of Mars.

For eons, sandstorms have swept the barren desolate landscape of the red planet. For centuries, Mars has beckoned to mankind to come and conquer its hostile climate. Now, in the year 2026, a group of one hundred colonists is about to fulfill that destiny.

John Boone, Maya Toitavna, Frank Chalmers, and Arkady Bogdanov lead a mission whose ultimate goal is the terraforming of Mars. For some, Mars will become a passion driving them to daring acts of courage and madness; for others it offers and opportunity to strip the planet of its riches. And for the genetic "alchemists, " Mars presents a chance to create a biomedical miracle, a breakthrough that could change all we know about life...and death.

The colonists place giant satellite mirrors in Martian orbit to reflect light to the planets surface. Black dust sprinkled on the polar caps will capture warmth and melt the ice. And massive tunnels, kilometers in depth, will be drilled into the Martian mantle to create stupendous vents of hot gases. Against this backdrop of epic upheaval, rivalries, loves, and friendships will form and fall to pieces--for there are those who will fight to the death to prevent Mars from ever being changed.

Brilliantly imagined, breathtaking in scope and ingenuity, Red Mars is an epic scientific saga, chronicling the next step in human evolution and creating a world in its entirety. Red Mars shows us a future, with both glory and tarnish, that awes with complexity and inspires with vision."


Green Mars (book 2 link)

"In the Nebula Award winning Red Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson began his critically acclaimed epic saga of the colonization of Mars, Now the Hugo Award winning Green Mars continues the thrilling and timeless tale of humanity's struggle to survive at its farthest frontier.

Nearly a generation has passed since the first pioneers landed, but the transformation of Mars to an Earthlike planet has just begun The plan is opposed by those determined to preserve the planets hostile, barren beauty. Led by rebels like Peter Clayborne, these young people are the first generation of children born on Mars. They will be joined by original settlers Maya Toitovna, Simon Frasier, and Sax Russell. Against this cosmic backdrop, passions, rivalries, and friendships explode in a story as spectacular as the planet itself."

Blue Mars (book 3 link)


"The red planet is red no longer, as Mars has become a perfectly inhabitable world. But while Mars flourishes, Earth is threatened by overpopulation and ecological disaster. Soon people look to Mars as a refuge, initiating a possible interplanetary conflict, as well as political strife between the Reds, who wish to preserve the planet in its desert state, and the Green "terraformers". The ultimate fate of Earth, as well as the possibility of new explorations into the solar system, stand in the balance."

Dearest u/throwawayso30 , wishing you all the best for your surgery tomorrow and I hope the recovery is as swift and painless as possible. You're one amazing, sexy, badass woman, you got this!

Also u/janedoesquestion , what a lovely human being you are. The fact that there are people in the world who care about others like you do makes things seem not so bad, after all. Thank you for being awesome :)

I'd love to give a book idea, but everything I can think of seems a bit too dark... hmmm. Oh, what about The Time Traveller's Wife? I'm not a fan of 'love' type stories but a friend of mine made me read it and it was really good. Hope you get some great suggestions! :)

Fantasy books, specifically from first person (she liked hunger games). She would enjoy Alexey Pehov's work. Chronicles of Siala is a great place to start.

I can't comment on how good the translation is, but Pehov is one of the best russian fantasy authors (really popular here). So if they did a decent job at translating his books - the stories will go great with her.

Also from a first person perspective (and really good) are the Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny. Although this one might be a bit too dated for todays youth. A lot of characters smoke in it (I think all main ones smoke) and some of the descriptions are vague and abstract (almost surreal like) while others are clear and vivid.

And lastly (but not leastly?) I would recommend The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb. First person perspective, fantasy, rich world, with a lot of intrigue. This might the most appropriate book, because even though the protagonist a boy, the novels were written by a woman (it has that vibe about them, a feminine quality). Also has a lot about interaction with animals if she's into that sort of thing (like certain people being able to communicate with them etc). Has a lot of romance elements too (not with animals, don't worry). I'm sure you can figure out if a book is appropriate by reading the synopsis.

I hope this helps. Have a glorious day!

Most favorited, by reader percentage.

Most read

Top 5 most favorited.

unweighted results

Thank you everyone who voted. While I was graphing the results, (which you should definitely look at in more detail because there are more than 1 graphs ^), given the crazy number of you who said you love the Culture Series, I was pretty much scrambling to get a hold of it. I was also happy to see the Vorkosigan Saga so high (3rd most favorited, by ratio of readers to "favorite" votes, 8th top rated), because it's bloody amazing.

EDIT: Lois McMaster Bujold who has always been anti-DRM, along with Baen books, has released the entire Vorkosigan Saga on ebook format for free. In a press release, Baen Books reasoned that people will love the books so much, they'll go out and buy them after reading. If anyone is just starting out in the series, and you like a quick read with adventure and romance, start with Shards of Honor. If you like political intrigue and war, go with Barrayar, and if you prefer pure adventure, comedy, and deep space escapades, Warrior's Apprentice is bloody awesome.

All calculations and graphics were made using Excel.

To complete the list, I used this compilation, and suggestions from both r/books and r/scifi.

Most Read: Hitchhiker's Guide, Ender's Game, 1984, Dune, Brave New World, in that order.

Least Read, most loved: Vorkosigan Saga, and A Fire upon the Deep

Highest rated: Hitchhiker's Guide/Culture Series (tie).

I've uploaded the raw data here.

While not my favorite ever I really enjoyed the Otherland series (only four volumes but each book is fairly large).

It's entertaining cyberpunk and features some interesting looks at the future. Very enjoyable read.

Another (shorter) series that is good for a quick read and a lighter introduction to scifi is The Risen Empire. Split into two parts (although together they would have made an only slightly-large novel) it's along the border of Hard Scifi and "pulp scifi". I'd consider it as an okay introduction to hard scifi.

Which leads me to the third and forth series, Alastair Reynold's Revelation Space. Reynold's is hard scifi, meaning that there are points where he spends twice as much time describing the technical details when character advancement would be very much welcome. However, this also means he takes into account things like relativistic travel and how boring space battles would be to spectators. Awesome books though.

Last but not least is the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. It's hard scifi that doesn't lose sight of character development. Also, out of all the books I've mentioned I'd have to call it the most "realistic" as the technological point at which it starts could conceivably be reached in the next decade or so.

All enjoyable reads, all enjoyable scifi. After (or during) these don't forget to check out classics like Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Banks, etc. Especially Asimov's Foundation books or the short(ish) story Nightfall, although the original short story can easily be considered better than the expanded version linked (so you might want to stop reading when you reach the end of the original).

Is there anything in particular you're leaning to?

Author Cherie Priest has a couple excellent books.

• Boneshaker, first book in her Clockwork Century series. It's a steampunk setting with zombies and all sorts of wonderful stuff. This book is actually on sale through the end of the month for $2.99.
  
• Bloodshot, first book in her Cheshire Red Reports series. It's about a vampire gal who is a thief-for-hire.
  
  The Dresden Files series, by Jim Butcher, is a wonderful series. It's about a wizard-for-hire in the modern world, and delves into the wonderful magic environment that Jim has created. Jim likes to put his characters through trouble and turmoil, and it's good for character development! The series starts off with Storm Front.
  
  The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is another great series. It's a post-apocalyptic/oppressed setting, centering around something called 'The Hunger Games' - an annual battle that captivates the capitol and all twelve remaining districts. There is a movie releasing next year, as well.
  
  The Name of the Wind is a terrific book by Patrick Rothfuss, the first entry into his series The Kingkiller Chronicles. It's a fantasy setting, and is about a character named Kvothe recounting his life. The writing style has an absolutely artistic writing style that is captivating to read, and such interesting and progressing events that make you eagerly turn the page. I have not yet read the sequel, The Wise Man's Fear, but I'm told it's even better in every way.
  
  Terry Pratchett is an amazing and renowned author. He has been knighted, an event for which he created his own sword for by hand, battles against Alzheimer's in a most respectable and commendable way, and has created such an interesting and provoking world that provides a lot of laughs and curious perspectives on matters. Where you start is a more difficult choice. A couple choice options might be as follows (I haven't read others yet, so I can't attest to others, but there are many!).
  
  
• Guards! Guards! which is the first installment to the City Watch sequence.
  
• The Reaper Man trails after Death, after he has been fired from his job.
  
  I haven't started this book yet, nor looked into it, but I have heard terrific reviews. The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch, is his first book in his Gentleman Bastard Sequence series.
  
  And of course, if you haven't entered George RR Martin's world of Westeros, the series A Song of Ice and Fire could be a wonderful read. It's very complex and very long and not yet complete (five books so far). It starts off with Game of Thrones, which is what the recently-aired HBO series was based upon.
  
  In the science fiction sphere, I would recommend Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. It's the first in his Ender's series, and there are quite a few books set in the world. I have only read the first one, and it was an excellent read, insightful and thought-provoking.
  
  ...anyway, that should be a few to peek at!

Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere is a great urban fantasy story that takes place in the unseen world below London and includes some magic, adventure and a great mystery.


If you haven't read the Chronicles of Narnia try those. After you get past the Christian allegories in the first book the series is enjoyable. If you have read them check out His Dark Materials. Another great book that has been called the atheists' response to Narnia.

China Mieville's Perdido Street Station would be a good one too. Definitely darker than the fantasy in Harry Potter but well written and a great story.

The Hunger Games trilogy has been mentioned a few times and is enjoyable. It is more Science Fiction than fantasy but is a great dystopian story. Written for YAs, like Harry Potter, but enjoyable for just about anyone.They're making a Hunger Games movie now so you'll be able to say you read it back before it was cool.


Edit: Forgot to mention The Dark Tower Series. A great series by Steven King that combines fantasy, western, science fiction and some horror. That sounds like a hodgepodge but the series manages to walk the line so well you end up staying awake until 2am reading to find out what happens next.

Most of this is copypasta from another reply on this thread, since it seemed silly to just rephrase all the things. Please note the last paragraph if none of these seem fun. I read a lot, mostly exclusively SF/F (both adult and YA), and boy do I have opinions on it. And if you're not a reader starting with YA is a thought. There's a lot of fun, intelligent YA out there now as publishers realize teens don't actually want to be treated like they're stupid.

For a low commitment (i.e. not part of a series), humorous start there's Terry Pratchett/Neil Gaiman's Good Omens. I like a lot of Gaiman's work, which ranges from the strange and humorous (see: GO) to the strange and creepy (Anasazi Boys), but what I'd recommend from him depends on what you're looking for.

In the funny but harder scifi range I'd rec the beloved classic Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. This is seriously one of the wittiest books I've ever read besides being an action-packed scifi romp.

If you're interested in urban fantasy I have all the recs. Everything from Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden series Book 1: Storm Front, for the grown-up wizard, to Seanan McGuire's October Daye series Book 1: Rosemary and Rue, if you're more into fae.

For the dark and more sexual (seriously, there is sex in these books) I highly recommend the Fever Series by Karen Moning, Book 1: Darkfever.

If you like SF/F books (like Discworld, Animorphs, etc.) let me know what subgenres (e.g. hard scifi, urban fantasy, urban scifi, fantasy romance, young adult _____ ) you think you might like and I guarantee you I have a recommendation or two. I read a lot.

I have 0 experience with incarceration, but I have loads of experience with books. Not sure his interests, but here are a few books I adore:

The Lies of Locke Lamora - Basically an Ocean's 11 heist story set in a world similar to Game of Thrones.

The Name of the Wind - (from the Amazon description) The riveting first-person narrative of a young man who grows to be the most notorious magician his world has ever seen.

Cosmos - Carl Sagan saw the best in our species. This book is what the TV series was based on.

I would encourage your friend to read text books as well while he is inside as well. Pick a topic they have an interest in, and find an older textbook on the subject. For me that would be this book. Not a topic I was educated on, but something I have an interest in.

Thank you for supporting your friend!

Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson.

In his most ambitious project to date, award-winning author Kim Stanley Robinson utilizes years of research and cutting-edge science in the first of three novels that will chronicle the colonization of Mars.

For eons, sandstorms have swept the barren desolate landscape of the red planet. For centuries, Mars has beckoned to mankind to come and conquer its hostile climate. Now, in the year 2026, a group of one hundred colonists is about to fulfill that destiny.

John Boone, Maya Toitavna, Frank Chalmers, and Arkady Bogdanov lead a mission whose ultimate goal is the terraforming of Mars. For some, Mars will become a passion driving them to daring acts of courage and madness; for others it offers and opportunity to strip the planet of its riches. And for the genetic "alchemists, " Mars presents a chance to create a biomedical miracle, a breakthrough that could change all we know about life...and death.

The colonists place giant satellite mirrors in Martian orbit to reflect light to the planets surface. Black dust sprinkled on the polar caps will capture warmth and melt the ice. And massive tunnels, kilometers in depth, will be drilled into the Martian mantle to create stupendous vents of hot gases. Against this backdrop of epic upheaval, rivalries, loves, and friendships will form and fall to pieces--for there are those who will fight to the death to prevent Mars from ever being changed.

Brilliantly imagined, breathtaking in scope and ingenuity, Red Mars is an epic scientific saga, chronicling the next step in human evolution and creating a world in its entirety. Red Mars shows us a future, with both glory and tarnish, that awes with complexity and inspires with vision.

The most recent suggestions thread produced a few good titles, but there were no votes for any of them.

So I just picked one.

This time let's read The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.

We've already done americana and dystopian philosophy, so fantasy seems like a logical next step.

It's Rothfuss's first novel and the first in the The Kingkiller Chronicle series. It also won a couple of awards: a Quill Award and a Publisher's Weekly Best Books of the Year award, both in the science fiction/fantasy/horror genre.

Here's a few places to get it:

• Amazon.com - $8
  
• Your local library
  
  It's pretty long (almost 900 pages), so let's give it a full month. That would put it at finishing up October 1.
  
  Enjoy!

summer book adventures-

1. [The Thirteenth Tale] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Thirteenth-Tale-A-Novel/dp/B004H8GLXQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367430308&sr=8-1&keywords=thirteenth+tale) is a great story about an author and her amazing life story. This is a quick read and I often recommend it to others.
   
2. [The Time Traveler's Wife] (http://www.amazon.com/Time-Travelers-Wife-Audrey-Niffenegger/dp/015602943X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367430397&sr=1-1&keywords=Times+traveler+wife) This is one of my all time favorite books. It is so sweet and an amazing love story.
   
3. [Where did you go Bernadette?] (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_sabc?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&pageMinusResults=1&suo=1367430443255#/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_9?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=where%20did%20you%20go%20bernadette%20by%20maria%20semple&sprefix=where+did%2Cstripbooks%2C202&rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3Awhere%20did%20you%20go%20bernadette%20by%20maria%20semple&sepatfbtf=true&tc=1367430445332) This is something I'm currently reading. It is a great read about a woman that runs her life through a virtual assistant but then disappears. It is told well through a series of letters, emails, and messages.
   
4. [Waiting to be Heard] (http://www.amazon.com/Waiting-Be-Heard-A-Memoir/dp/0062217208/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=1L8ON2MX2QPTV&coliid=I3VFG8BJC2ZH6E) This is Amanda Knox's book about her time in Italy. I haven't read it yet but plant to get it soon. If you don't know about the Amanda Knox case google it and you will see how interesting it is. I used to live abroad and this is something I think my mother always feared.
   
5. [The Witch's Daughter] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Witchs-Daughter-Paula-Brackston/dp/125000408X/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=1BGV2L2FWNXQM&coliid=ITZO2ETH2AVQ7) Another book I am hoping to read. It looks really interesting. It is about witches and is a fantasy/historical fiction hybrid.
   
   Good luck finding some great books!

Anyways, having looked over my bookshelf, here are some recommendations purely for the sake of recommending. Maybe not spot on what you're looking for, but why not...

Neverwhere. A book I've read about nine times. Because it's awesome.

Time Traveler's Wife. Kind of established/re-ignited my hope and sense of romance. My father isn't much of a reader and usually takes months to go through a single book, but after losing his wife, my stepmother, he went through this in a week and thanked me profusely afterwards.

Island. I'll tell you right off, it's one of those 'intelligent reads'. The end is proclaimed early, it comes as predicted and it's depressing, but the book overall is nice. You read it first, to check :)

Gates of Fire.

Born To Run. Just read this recently. Fun, interesting, quick.

The aspects of Clarke's style that you seem to enjoy really shine in the short story format. You said you've read everything, does that include his short fiction? There's a great anthology which collects them all.

Asimov was also great at writing short fiction, and I like this collection of his works.

Many of the stories curated in those anthologies were published 50 or so years ago in weekly/monthly science fiction magazines, you might see if any one has created 'best of science fiction weekly' collections.

Tor publishes short fiction for free on its website regularly. It's fairly hit or miss, but it's a good way to window shop authors.

A novel you might enjoy is Leviathan Wakes. It's a hard sci-fi novel in which humanity has colonized Mars and the Asteroid Belt. At this point all have their own unique cultures because it takes so long to travel between them. Not a lot of character development, which you don't seem to be into anyway, just fun ride in a cool setting. First in a series, but I haven't read the sequels yet so I can't comment on those.


You also might like The Martian, by Andy Weir. An astronaut is stranded by himself on Mars and has to survive. Weir wrote a short story called "The Egg" which gets posted to reddit on a regular basis.

I'm currently reading Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, and am LOVING it. I'm pretty close to the end, though, and I'm worried that not much is going to be wrapped up in this volume. D-:

The book before that was The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian and...I didn't finish it. One of my few 'abandoned' books. Had to read it for a book club, even, and couldn't bring myself to finish.

Before that was...I think Alif the Unseen? AMAZING book. Won the World Fantasy Award the year it came out, and is an amazing fantasy book that takes place in current-day 'unspecified middle-eastern country.' Highly recommended to any fantasy readers out there.

Oh, and Suki: A Like Story was adorable for the manga folk out there.

Leviathan Wakes should be mentioned.

The Night Circus has gotten a lot of praise. I haven't read it yet, but I'm aware of it's growing fan base.

I'm sure 'The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making' is a great story but it's a pet peeve of mine to include Children and Young adult books in a 'best of' list. This is probably a result of seeing Harry Potter Book 4 win a Hugo award.

Hey /u/vipr9, /u/sabien, you should both read more books! They're great, and reading virtually anything makes you smarter, the same way that picking up heavy shit makes you stronger.

I've never been to /r/books, but it looks like a quality sub. I guarantee if you make a post saying "I stopped reading for fun in middle school, help me get back into it" and mention that you love the Witcher series, people would recommend stuff that will blow you away.

I haven't read the Witcher books, and I'm only about 20 hours into Witcher 3, but I think you both would love The Name of The Wind. $6.27 on Amazon!

Everybody should read more books. Me, you, everybody.

The thing is, nobody generally cares about all of your 24 hours. I mean, you're sleeping for a third of them, most likely. And even then, even your waking hours are probably not all of equal importance, even to you, in retrospect. I suspect that if I asked you what you did last Thursday, you could probably remember a few of those hours, but even your own memory is highly edited around the salient and important points. And if I asked you about those hours in a month, unless there was some seriously significant stuff happening then, you probably won't recall them. And in a year? Forget it.

Neal Stephenson has a wonderful conceit in his (wonderful) novel _Anathem_ where once a year, one group of people write down everything that they think has been important that year in a chronicle. Once every ten years, someone else goes over those and distills down what they think is still important. Once every hundred years, someone else goes over all of the ten-year chronicles and weeds out everything that in retrospect has been less important. And every thousand years, someone else does the same thing to that data set. It's a wonderful play on the notion that when one is concentrated on the present, everything seems important, but when one takes a longer view of time, some things that seemed important at the time seem less important, and some things that seemed unimportant at the time seem vital.

(All of this is to acknowledge, of course, that "importance" is a subjective thing, and historians themselves have over the years made strong arguments that many of the items of history neglected as unimportant are, in fact, important.)

In any case, history is not chronicle. It is not meant to be a perfect record of things. It is not a recording of the past for past's sake, either — it is not antiquarianism. History is about finding order and synthesis in the past, about understanding causes and effects, and about making a broad sense of what happened. It is a synthetic discipline; it is a craft, not a rote recording of data. No historian tries for that level of comprehensiveness, and indeed, it would be undermining to the whole enterprise to aspire to it. Because the story of, say, World War I, is not to be found in a minute-by-minute understanding of the individual lives of those involved — it is found in a proper appreciation of where the broad and the specific meet up, a balance between the global and the personal, the kind of weaving of narrative and causes that the best historians can pull off. No historian I know makes pretentions for epistemological completeness, even in their "microhistories."

That being said, I have an article I've been working on which literally follows a certain event minute-by-minute, but even then, there are huge gaps and uncertainties, but it is in those gaps and uncertainties that history becomes interpretive, speculative, debatable, and, well, fun.

I've been trying to get my hands on a kindle for a very long time. Personally, I LOVE reading (my mom's an english teacher) and frankly my list of books-to-read is never less than a dozen books long. However, after having to pay a lot of money for recent unfortunate unforseen circumstances, I can't afford to buy all the physical books I want to read anymore. I can buy one or two a month from the secondhand store but that's all. The reason I want a Kindle is because in the long run it would be a lot cheaper and allow me to get back into my passion for reading. For instance, I've been wanting to read The Name of the Wind forever. Everyone on reddit keeps talking about how amazing it is but I haven't been able to buy it. Anyway, thank you so much for the contest and the opportunity and happy gifting! :)

Swan Song - Robert McCammon Of the books I read last year this was my favorite.

Old Man's War - John Scazi - It's a pretty fun Military Sci-fi series

Leviathan Wakes - S. A. Corey - Near space, space opera.

Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson - Epic Fantasy with an interesting magic system, good place to start with a popular author

The Blade Itself - Joe Abercrombie - "Grimm Dark" fantasy, he does an interesting thing by playing with a LotR style quest.

The Black Prism - Brent Weeks - Interesting Magic system, one of my favorite ongoing fantasy series. Much better than his first trilogy IMHO

Midnight Riot - Ben Aaronovitch - Funny urban fantasy series that takes place in London

His Majesty's Dragon - Namoi Novik - Napoleonic* war + dragon's, fun quick reads.

Sevenes - Neal Stephenson - Stand Alone sci-fi novel about human's trying to survive in space as the world ends.

I can suggest more if you want, and I assume you've probably read at least some of these. Hope you enjoy some of them at least though.

I forgot, I have also started Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Read by Stephen Fry), and it is well done as well.
I remembered a couple more that I liked:

Unbroken - good (true) story about WWII pilot who was captured by the Japanese

Water for Elephants - Good book (fiction) about a circus in the depression era

Anathem - I really like Neal Stephenson, and this was a good book, but it was very long, and I'm sure I would have had a much harder time if I had to read it, instead of just listen to it

Eye of the World (Wheel of Time Book 1) - Good book, but very long and if it weren't for the different voices by the narrator, I would have gotten lost pretty easily.

Hope this helps, and hope you find some good ones!

Romance and Science fiction! It's got to be The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

Nothing else comes close my friends.

“Right now we are here, and nothing can mar our perfection, or steal the joy of this perfect moment.”
― Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife

“Clare, I want to tell you, again, I love you. Our love has been the thread through the labyrinth, the net under the high-wire walker, the only real thing in this strange life of mine that I could ever trust. Tonight I feel that my love for you has more density in this world than I do, myself: as though it could linger on after me and surround you, keep you, hold you.”
― Audrey Niffenegger


https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/498072.Audrey_Niffenegger

I both agree and disagree.

I agree that it is unlikely to happen, certainly nowhere near the scale of the BBS scene. But I disagree that all of the conveniences you outline (which BTW are fictionalized quite well in Daniel Suarez' Daemon and Freedom novels) are absolutely necessary to make it big enough to make a difference.

Indra Sinha's book Cybergypsies is an interesting read from the era of the late 80's. Most of it revolves around MUDs, viruses, and the interesting people online at the time, but Indra's BBS connections were very important in supporting his political activism, leading to some influence on real events related to the Kurds in Iraq War I.

> An alternative network like that won't going to matter much if only the technically inclined can use it.

Depends on what you value. If you just want a few dozen people to talk to on a regular basis, the "technically inclined" is still a pretty big pool to find friends in. If you are involved in real journalism or political activism, you only need about a hundred thousand people in the network to make a very strong impact. Look at TOR and I2P today: almost no one relative to the total population use them, yet they are in the news pretty frequently.

Dhalgren is an insane look at a dystopian future. Very long, often hard to read, but quite good. If he liked House of Leaves and also likes Sci-fi, I think he would enjoy Dhalgren. It is hard to read in places but that adds to its appeal.

Treason by Orson Scott Card was quite good, and I'd never heard of it before my boyfriend recommended it.

These are both sci-fi and sociological in nature.

I would second Murakami novels in general.

The Name of the Wind is a fantasy novel that I liked a lot. It was recommended to me by my brother, who then gave it to me last year for xmas.

Books sharpen the mind

alright, this is a long shot, but Neil Stephenson's Anathem is one of my favorite books. It's sort of an alternate reality book where universities are these amazing places that have somehow been crossed with convents... but not in a bad way. Honestly, as a grad-student, it sounds pretty alright to me. It's a bit slow at first, and doesn't shy away from theoretical type talk (but there's explanations in the back) but it's quite good.

Some great books already on this list, I'll add in a few that I would also recommend, or that I see come up a lot:

• Year Zero. Very funny, in the vein of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
  
• Snow Crash. I actually just bought this book, and don't know much about it, but it is heavily recommended on this sub. Very excited to read it.
  
• Old Man's War Or anything else by John Scalzi (Including Fuzzy Nation and Redshirts ). He's by no mean's a profound writer, but all his books are easy, fun, and pretty imaginative.
  
  Have fun dude!

With a near term timeline, and scientific exploration, this is so far the sub-genre I am looking for.

> "Red Mars" by Kim Stanley Robinson

from a link
>For some, Mars will become a passion driving them to daring acts of courage and madness; for others it offers and opportunity to strip the planet of its riches. And for the genetic "alchemists, " Mars presents a chance to create a biomedical miracle, a breakthrough that could change all we know about life...and death. bold is mine

So let's take a look at this and see how it stacks up against hyperstition, the mythos of culture so subconscious that it is a set of assumptions taken for granted, patterns of society which do not normally require questioning. (hyperstition is kind of a new term for me so if anyone has comments on this its appreciated)

I bolded "opportunity to strip the planet" above to highlight the cultural attitude required to produce this behavior. To simply state the issue, exponential exploitation happens when you combine unlimited growth (no natural predator or checks on permacultural viability) with deception and exploitation formalized as the profit motive, the engine which drives our economy.

Let me shift a perspective with a hypothetical question. Imagine that Earth had an "alien encounter" with advanced "visitors" from another solar system. Would you rather that their civilization be founded upon fundamental inequality (division, pyramid, competition, authoritative), or one founded upon equality (civilization 2.0, unity, cooperation, collaborative)? I am trying to imagine the difference in their behavior, and well, Star Trek comes up. So anyhow its just a metaphor to point at possibility.

Personally, I think that competition (exploitation) would be too destructive to make it out to space in any kind of sustainable manner. When we talk about sustainability I suggest we clarify what is it we are really concerned about sustaining. Growth? Looking at the bigger picture it almost seems irresponsible to unleash a self-replicating mining operation firing minerals to some central points and consuming the local resources? Conceivably escaping our solar system to automatically strip anything within thousands of light years? For what purpose is this? Which one would we prefer again?

So I would say that this is a great example of missing out on a more constructive narrative. I also bolded "life...and death" above because this would only be the likely obsession of super-self-centered personality (ego) which has repressed access to god (mediated by church, or blocked by scientism). Scientism allows the mind's entire construction of reality to be fabricated by an assortment of learned patterns, as opposed to directly experiencing through inward application of scientific method (meditative exploration).

So anyhow, considering this kinda stuff has been happening for quite some time (check out my story ;), I suggest that stories oblivious to the whole hyperstition thing and of the implications of mythos, logos, and nomos:

>Mythos, Logos, and Nomos composed the first great Trinity (at least of Western civilization), but its begetting required Logos to first generate the sub-trinity of ontology, epistemology, and teleology, and then for ontology and teleology to "feed back" and powerfully enrich epistemology — logic and science — converting part of epistemology into a meta-science, cybernetics, the art of converting wisdom into choice, choice into action, and action into subsequent evaluation and resulting refinements of future choices and actions … especially those choices and actions which Socrates, according to Plato, associated with the art of governance.

>Such "cybernetic thinking" was crucial to defining and then enriching Nomos. Note that the ancient Greek verb "kuberne" is embedded in both "cybernetics" and "governance", and their association originated with Socrates' analogy to the art of the kubernetes, the helmsman, the pilot, who must integrate knowledge of the changeless ("stars") with the naturally changing ("winds and waves") in order to choose whether and how to act with reference to that which is humanly changeable — to alter the angle of the rudder, the trim of the sail.

btw. check out other documents on that site

• Saying what needs to be said
  
• The Cybernetics of Society
  
• Isonomia: Equal Liberty, Justice, and Sovereignty Under Law

I quite liked it. It definitely starts to drag some in books 3-5, but I thought it was completely worth it. Book 1 (The Gunslinger) is absolutely fantastic, and he ends the series perfectly in Book 7.

As far as really good fantasy series go, you can't get better than the Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss. It's an utterly brilliant story.

Here's another great series/book you should check out if you enjoyed Dune: The Great Book of Amber, by Roger Zelanzy. It's actually 10 books they combined into one for the Great Book. Really interesting mind-bending mystery sci-fi, plot points to keep you guessing until the end, and written during the same general time period as Dune (1970-1991). It's a wild ride! Plus, you know, the philosophical musings on humanity that we all love so much in our sci-fi/fantasy :)

Not exactly sure what you mean with Dystopian/Futuristic... Dystopian in the sense of 1984 or Brave New World? As in organic transition to near-future dystopia?

If you mean postapocalyptic, I am just going to quote myself...
Post-Apocalyptic I recommend two things:

>A Canticle For Leibowitz Brilliant novel consisting of slightly linked chapters from shortly after collapse up to new civilisational heights. Don't read the sequel, it's a bad Western.

>Wool by Hugh Howey. Really gripping, believeable world-building and decent characters. Sequels are ok, but if you can stand not getting proper conclusions stop after Wool :)

>EDIT: Aaaah, I forgot one of the most important ones - The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Depressing, low-key, believeable. The prose is stunning. If you read anything read this.


Futuristic is pretty broad, I guess you mean SciFi? Alastair Reynolds is always a good recommendation - it's kind of plausible Science Fiction on a big scale. He is pretty good at characterization, keeps the plot in sight and there are still epic space battles. Good starting point is Revelation Space.

If you want another Dresden-like book series, check out the Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne. I'd say they are almost sue-ably similar. Main character is flippant and sarcastic, but also honorable and relies heavily on improvisation. I think these would be exactly what you're looking for.

I can also second the suggestion for Weeks' new Lightbringer series.

For your Night Angel fix, I recently read and loved Blood Song. The author is fairly new, but the book is absolutely solid and wonderful.

Another good book series is the Kingkiller Chronicles.

I'll stop the list there before I get carried away. But I think Iron Druid and Blood Song will be spot on as far as similarity. The other two are books I think you'll really enjoy, but aren't necessarily as similar.

I'm horrible at these things. This is technically my third intro, enjoy.

My name is Vanessa and I love books and nature. I'm currently reading The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss and am hesitant to finish it because it's so good. I'm new to North Carolina, where I just moved from Ohio with my amazing partner. We're planning to adopt a pit bull from a local rescue just as soon as we're a bit more settled. I am avidly looking for a job and a car. Both were lost due to unfortunate circumstances. I love to hike, cook, entertain myself, and laugh. I can't wait until the weather is more suitable for camping. I try my hardest to love the life I live and live a life I love. My life has been very eventful thus far, and I like it that way. I have a lot of dreams, and one day I hope to accomplish of them but as Albus Dumbledore once said, "It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live." I live fully, every day, when depression doesn't tie me down.

Hope that was okay. Have a great evening, everyone.

Gregory Benford might be to your liking, Eater hits a lot of those old hard SF buttons in particular. The Hyperion Cantos may also do the trick. C.S. Friedman's In Conquest Born and This Alien Shore are favorites that have that classic sci-fi feeling.

I would also give Stephenson another shot.. it's really good stuff, but yeah Snow Crash is a little over-the-top (very much so for the first chapter or two, but it does settle down a good bit). I mean, the main character is named Hiro Protagonist... there's obviously going to be a certain level of tongue-in-cheek, self-aware ridiculousness going on, but it's quite amazing how well he foresaw much of the modern computing world. Cryptonomicon is awesome and is one of those rare books that somehow feels like science fiction even though there's nothing out of the ordinary in it. Anathem and Zodiac are also quite good and more traditional in tone and style.

So I have a friend in jail that I regularly send books to. This doesn't cover every situation, but I assume the circumstances will be similar.

He says that the (meager) prison library is very skewed towards religious books, classics, GED materials, and low-difficulty grocery store novels. Anything other than that will be appreciated. The books most requested are thick fantasy books, activity books (sudoku, physics workbooks, etc), science non-fiction, and coffee-table books or magazines with lots of pictures. These will be swapped with other inmates so that anyone interested has a chance to read.

Some things to keep in mind:

• There is often a limit on how many items can be kept. 3-books-in-1/omnibus editions help get around this.
  
• There may be monetary limits on gifts. Shop for deals and choose the cheaper mass market paperbacks whenever possible.
  
• Mail a receipt ASAP! She might not be able to pick up any books until she has that.
  
• Mail books through a big company (e.g. Amazon, B&N) or they might be destroyed. No third-party Amazon sellers or used book stores in most cases.
  
  Books that have gone over well and can be found in cheap forms:
  
  
• Mistborn trilogy
  
• His Dark Materials trilogy
  
• The Name of the Wind
  
• The Best American Science Writing/The Best American Science and Nature Writing anthologies
  
• Sudoku
  
• Hyperbole and a Half
  
• A Song of Ice and Fire

Hey! This is my kind of contest. Here's my list:

1. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Horari -
   From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.”
   One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us? (copied from the Amazon page)
   
   
2. [Name of the Wind - Kingkiller Chronicles by Pat Rothfuss] (https://www.amazon.com/Name-Wind-Patrick-Rothfuss/dp/0756404746/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1537668772&sr=1-1&keywords=name+of+the+wind) -
   My name is Kvothe.
   I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.
   You may have heard of me. (copied)
   
   
3. [The Golem Cypher: T.R.I.X. by B.V. Bayly] (https://www.amazon.com/Golem-Cypher-T-R-I-X-B-V-Bayly-ebook/dp/B072C11JJS/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1537668912&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=golem+the+trix+cypher) - Once one of the best assassins in the galaxy, Cadell is now the hunted. The Ascendency, the ruling galactic empire and Cadell’s ex-employer, has stripped him of everything and placed a significant bounty on his head. Forced to live with the shadows of his past, Cadell hides on the backwater planets of the outer rim. Away from anyone who would recognize him.
   When his old friend and mentor, Salis, dangles a job in front of him that will get him an Ascendency pardon and let him clear his name, Cadell is ready to take it on. Armed with his constant companion, a strange alien symbiote named T.R.I.X. and his skills as an assassin, Cadell sets off to complete the strange job. ( A nifty book but a relatively new author, worth the read!)
   
   
4. [I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid] (https://www.amazon.com/Im-Thinking-Ending-Things-Recommendation/dp/1501126946/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1537669080&sr=1-1&keywords=i%27m+thinking+of+ending+things) - All I'll say about this is that it's quite volatile when it comes to the reviews it's received. I enjoyed it, but many other didn't... It's quite a ride if you end up enjoying it.
   
   
5. [Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer] (https://www.amazon.com/Into-Wild-Jon-Krakauer/dp/0385486804/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1537669320&sr=1-1&keywords=into+the+wild+book) - In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild. (One of my favorite books/stories of all time. I
   also hold the movie close to my heart.)
   
   
   
   This took me a good few minutes, I hope you find something you like through this contest :)

If we start our experiment when Earth and Mars are at their most distant points (i.e. 180^o out of phase around the sun) from each other, very little will ever happen. Our rope will go slack and float in space for the rest of the planets' orbits, and will be pulled taught again whenever they're very far apart. You might get some cool wave motion along the length of the rope as it flops around in zero-g.

But that's pretty boring. If we instead start our mad experiment when Earth and Mars are not at their most distant points from each other, bad things are going to happen. In all likelihood, the rope would snap. But that's also pretty boring, and I'm guessing this isn't the answer you want.

Let's assume the rope is made of some magical material which can withstand any amount of tension without stretching or breaking, but somehow still behaves like a rope when not under tension. So it's completely immune to the effects of stress and strain, except when we need it to act like a rope. Wonder Woman's magical lasso might have us covered here.

Eventually, Mars and Earth are going to want to get farther apart than our rope wants to allow. Keeping them connected is going to require decellerating one planet and accelerating the other (in inverse proportion to their masses, since F=ma must be the same for both). Now we run into the issue that it takes a lot of force to accelerate a planet. The rope has to provide this force, and it's providing it over a relatively small area of each planet's surface. Planets don't like that^[citation ^needed] . Since we've required that our rope can't break, Earth and Mars soon will. The rope will begin cutting through both planets until it frees itself from one and remains embedded in the other. The pressure exerted on Mars' surface will be about twice as high as the pressure exerted on Earth's, and Mars is half as thick, so I'd wager Mars would be cut in half long before the rope reached Earth's core.

But that's only slightly less boring than the rope snapping. Yes, I just called "cutting Mars in half" boring. Let's make Earth and Mars infinitely durable like our rope. The various mining industries on Earth and the budding potato farming industry on Mars will likely be displeased by this, but we'll carry on without them.

Now's where I have to speculate a bit. Earth and Mars' orbits are now a coupled system. By necessity, they will now orbit at a common radius, and I think they'll likely end up like a pair of moons that co-orbit each other while orbiting the sun as a pair. Thanks to energy conservation, we can calculate the average radius of this new orbit. I got 1.035 AU, which is only 3.5% further from the sun than Earth already is. The combination of Earth being much more massive than mars and closer to the sun means that Earth is heavily favored in the gravitational binding energy equation. Earth's moon will remain gravitationally bound to this new system, but I'm pretty sure Deimos and Phobos will be left behind to co-orbit the sun and each other at pretty much the radius of Mars' original orbit (assuming neither of them slams into Mars while it travels inwards).

The three-body system of Mars, Earth, and the Moon, will almost certainly be unstable, so at least two of these bodies should expect a catastrophic impact in their near future. Fortunately, we already made Mars and Earth invincible to get here, so only the secret Nazi colony on the dark side of the Moon has to worry.

Roger Zelazny - The Chronicles of amber -Get all the short novels in one book as The Great Book Of Amber

• quick fun read. Great ideas, Great Characters.
  
• "Meatloaf"
  
  
  Steven Erikson - Malazan Book of the Fallen
  
  
• Holy stack of doorstopper books batman! Long and "Meaty" indeed.
  
• "10 Course steak dinner"
  
• start with book 2, and if its not your thing, then that book stands alone fairly well.
  
  Gene Wolfe - Book of the New Sun
  
  
• After years of being badgered by friends to read this, i am well into the first book, and its really interesting. Gene Wolfe has a very "Epic" style of writing.
  
• Book 1 and 2
  
• "4 course Sable fish dinner"
  
  
  
  

Cool contest! I need to start reading more again.

A great fantasy book is The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, I think you would like it! It's got great reviews on Amazon too so you don't just have to take my word for it, and the price is super reasonable.

Since you like Roald Dahl, if you haven't already read Holes by Louis Sachar, I would definitely recommend that one. His book Cardturner is also a good one.

What about checking out some of Arthur C. Clarke's stuff? Rendezvous with Rama and 2001 spring immediately to mind, although I'm quite partial to A Fall of Moondust. It doesn't have any aliens, but it is one of the most intense sci-fi books I've ever read.

Maybe check out Leviathan Wakes by a couple of writers going under the pseudonym James S. A. Corey. It's pretty good with the science, is set in our solar system in the near future, and features a weird alien attack. It also has a bit of a Firefly vibe, I thought, so if that's your thing I'd heartily recommend it.

There's always the Night's Dawn trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton, starting with The Reality Dysfunction. They're big space opera books, although it's obvious Hamilton knows a bit about physics, and they can get very creepy. Probably one of the best written and enjoyable series I've ever read, although the ending is a bit flat.

Finally, I'd look at Midshipman's Hope by David Feintuch. It's been a while since I've read it and it's basically a Napoleonic era battleship setting transferred onto a spaceship, buy I recall that the second half of the book was one of the most exciting and nail-biting examples of trying to save a damaged spaceship all alone in space that I'd ever read. Anyway, give it a go, I suppose.

Oh I hope Leviathan Wakes wins best novel. If anyone hasn't heard of it now's the best time to start. Quite a great read and the sequel comes out this summer.

you mentioned being a fangirl; i've been reading some amazing, recent sci fi works written by women authors lately, maybe you'd find them interesting? all 3 of these are among the absolute best sci fi i've ever read:

the time traveller's wife by audrey niffenegger

^ forget about the movie, the book is fantastic

oryx and crake by margaret atwood

^ nice and dark

lilith's brood by octavia e. butler

^ amazon reviews calls it "profoundly evocative, sensual -- and disturbing", which sums it up pretty well

i mean, i say give the books another shot because i can't imagine enjoying the movies but not the books. but to each their own. if you don't want to go down that road, what do you mean things that might interest you? do you mean in the harry potter universe? if so, the other stuff is fun but the original seven are her magnum opus IMO and to get my fix, i had to go outside the Harry Potter universe.

some books that I just inhaled and read in one sitting will sound super corny, but...

• The Sookie Stackhouse novels. Wow. I am embarrassed at how fast I read these books. Edward Cullen can screw off. Eric is way hotter.
  
• the Da Vinci Code. Not the best writing. not the most factual history. don't care I blasted through that book.
  
• Ready Player One
  
  If you just want some good fantasy that isn't just Lord of the Rings rip offs, these are the ones I like.
  
  
• Gormenghast
  
• King Killer Chronicles
  
• Wheel of Time
  
• Game of Thrones
  
• The Blade Itself
  
• The Crystal Cave

What I did was I started looking at short story collections. A short story lets you see how an author writes without needing to read an entire book of theirs. I have two favorite short story collection "series".

Dark Beyond the Stars, which is a Sci-fi, space opera collection. There are other Beyond the Stars books as well if you liked the first.

And Samuel Peralta's The Future Chronicles. The Future chronicles typically does some sort of sci-fi, but there are others as well. The great part about The Future Chronicles, is that you get to pick your flavor. In the mood for alternate history? Pick Alt. History 101, in the mood for spaceships and star ships? Pick The Galaxy Chronicles. In the mood for time travel? Pick the Time Travel Chronicles, ect.

Also, The Martian is a fantastic book. As well as xkcd's What if? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions.

The best sci-fi book series to come out in a very long time! The first book is Leviathan Wakes; five more have been written so far, and three more are scheduled to come out over the next three years (and the authors have been pretty good about keeping to that schedule, unlike a certain fantasy author we all know and love).

If reading books isn't your jam or you don't have time, there are also audiobooks some fans swear by. There's also a TV show which just wrapped up its second season, which you can get on Amazon Prime in the US and Netflix everywhere else.

If you like sci-fi that does its best to stick to actual science, space battles, political intrigue, and likeable characters who grow more complex with every book, I highly reccommend it!

Name of the Wind and Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss (they're parts 1 and 2 of a trilogy, respectively).

Rothfuss writes an incredibly engaging story. The trilogy is about the rise and fall of one of the greatest heroes in a fantasy world, and it couldn't be more personable or interesting.

Also, everybody needs to read some Diana Wynne Jones in their life. She's an amazing fantasy author who's often dismissed as a children's author. Think JK Rowling if JK Rowling studied under Tolkien and were a much, MUCH better storyteller. Howl's Moving Castle is probably her most famous novel (it was turned into a Studio Ghibli movie a few years ago), but the Chrestomanci series is great too.

• Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith - very imaginative, sort of across between, say, the humor of Douglas Adams and the down to Earth noir of Raymond Chandler.
  
• Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge. Everything SciFi should be.
  
• The Hainish Cycle (or if you're made of money) by Ursula K. Le Guin. Pretty much every single SciFi author you like has read these and been inspired by them, that should tell you a lot, iconic stories and concepts.
  
• Downbelow Station by CJ Cherryh. The core novel in the author's Alliance-Union Universe stories. Great ideas, great stories.

You should read Wool I can't even describe how awesome this book is. Over 7,000 people have reviewed it and most of them loved it like I did. Everything by Hugh Howey that I've read I've loved. I'd like this book which is also a dytopia type book which is what Wool is. Thanks for the contest.

This might seem like an off-the-wall suggestion, but Snow Crash satisfies your requirements, and is fantastic.

It's science fiction--cyberpunk, actually--from the early 90s, foundational to many modern concepts and ideas (the internet, viral media, avatars, etc), but the protagonist (whose name is, in fact, Hiro Protagonist) is the self-described Greatest Sword-fighter in the World. Of course he's also one of the only sword-fighters left, but his enemy in the novel wields monomolecular glass knives and can't be killed without killing yourself, so he gets lots of practice.

Seen from this zoom level it probably sounds cheesy, and the style is very manic, very old-school-90s-cool, but once it hooks you it becomes very serious, very hardcore, and one of the best novels you will ever read.

There's a fair amount of sword fighting, everything from Kendo screaming-at-the-other-guy to Pirate ship deck fights to cyberspace lightning duels to race riot bar brawls. Although he probably wasn't at the time, Stephenson is now an expert in swords, from forging them to using them, and what he lacked in knowledge as he wrote Snow Crash he certainly makes up for with enthusiasm.

It's worth a try, if you haven't read it already, and its future is, more or less, our present, minus the exaggerations. Which is an accomplishment in and of itself.

Edit: Fixed the link.

Re: Mars

If you've not taken the time to read The Martian by Andy Weir, do it. Now. I mean right now.

It's fantastic, beginning to end. You can read the first chapter at the author's website, and it should hook you instantly.

The audio book version, read by R.C. Bray, is fantastic. There is a movie version coming in November staring Matt Damon, directed by Ridley Scott.

One of my favorite books I've read as of late. Accurate, fun, harrowing, interesting, and just technical enough to make it feel entirely real beginning to end.

Weir's talk at Google about the novel goes into depth about it; he actually researched and wrote programs to help him keep the book as accurate and realistic as possible.

It was brutal. I wasn't that good. But there were many people who were superb. It was such a pleasure watching them perform.

Here are some sci-fi recommendations (you may have read them already, but I thought I'd offer anyway):

Serious Scifi:

Anathem the "multiverse" (multiple realities) and how all that works
Seveneves feminism meets eugenics—watch out!
The Culture series by Iain Banks, esp Book 2, the Player of Games Banks is dead, but wrote some of the best intellectual scifi ever

Brilliant, Visionary:

Accelerando brilliant and hilarious; and it's not a long book
Snowcrash classic
Neuromancer another classic

Tawdry yet Lyrical (in a good way):

Dhalgren beautiful, poetic, urban, stream of consciousness, and more sex than you can believe

Underrated Classics:

Voyage to Arcturus ignore the reviews and the bad cover of this edition (or buy a diff edition); this is the ONE book that every true scifi and fantasy fan should read before they die

Stress Pattern, by Neal Barrett, Jr. I can't find this on Amazon, but it is a book you should track down. It is possibly the WORST science fiction book ever written, and that is why you must read it. It's a half-assed attempt at a ripoff of Dune without any of the elegance or vision that Herbert had, about a giant worm that eats people on some distant planet. A random sample: "A few days later when I went to the edge of the grove to ride the Bhano I found him dead. I asked Rhamik what could have happened and he told me that life begins, Andrew, and life ends. Well, so it does."

Yeah. It was good, but triple crown good?

Popular sci-fi seems to have generally gone the way of social. Everything is all about the social implications of technology, rather than the technology itself.

Personally, I would have liked to see The Martian be nominated and win, but I'm a hard sci-fi kind of guy. (Does the fact that Andy Weir is/was self-published work against him?)

Leviathan Wakes, by James S.A. Corey (pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck). This was originally a d20 Modern game run by Ty Franck as a play-by-post game called 2350.

There are some differences, obviously, but most of the original crew and a good amount of the plot are pretty much taken straight from the original game.

Two great books.

If you like fantasy, this is an amazing book -- one of the best I've ever read.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss


This one is quoted a lot (Big Brother is watching) and a great book that I often think about.

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

I'd love to read Neverwhere! Used is fine :) cheaper ftw. Thanks for the awesome contest!

Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. Stunning scifi grand idea payoff in the conclusion. If you like it, the sequels are also magnificent. The climax of the last book, in particular, is mind shattering. It isn't a twist ending, because you have all the clues before the denouement. When the author finally puts them together, I promise you will be amazed and thoroughly satisfied.

Awesome! Have you read One Second After? If you liked Earth Abides, definitely check that out.

Oryx and Crake was a bit of a grind to be honest. I felt like she wrote the book sitting next to a thesaurus, and intentionally used the most obscure word possible to describe something. The overall story was amazing however.

I'll read whatever I'm interested at the moment. More often than not, space operas such as the Vorkosigan Saga or popcorn novels such as Ready Player One.

If you are into sci-fi, I would highly recommend the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. You're going to need this chronological order or books when buying, and a lot of them are contained in various omnibuses. The Expanse by James S.A. Corey is another phenomenal read and is an equally amazing Sy-Fy Network show. I'd recommend reading the books first then watching the show.

If maybe you like dystopian futures, I'd highly recommend the Silo Series by Hugh Howey or The Girl With All The Gifts by M. R. Carey.

Fiiiinally it's the weekend!! I've been looking for something new to read that's fun, and I think this fits the bill perfectly :) Thanks for the contest, you're awesome!

I don't just go about randomly recommending books, but anyone that reads this comment, please, read this book.

It is one of the best things I have ever read. I finished it in one 10 hour sitting the first time. Also, the audiobook is very good.

I love listening to audiobooks while sanding and finishing projects.

Great book. I actually picked it up back when the author made it available digitally for free. So psyched that he finally got it published this year AND it got optioned for a movie (fingers crossed). Brilliant, well-researched, and funny! I would encourage anyone to buy a copy.

1. If you haven't already, check out The Expanse on Syfy. It's based on a series of books by James S.A. Corey (pseudonym). The first in the series is Leviathian Wakes.
   
2. Just got SiriusXM for my Jeep GC. Any hidden gems among the stations? I'm really enjoying the hard rock channels.
   
3. Been putting it off, but yeah, think I'll watch Deadpool this week.
   
4. Who's up for a Browns meetup at Yellowstone National Park? I'm pretty sure Pabsty's headed this way. You're all invited, but room space is limited. We were shooting for the end of June, but honestly, as busy as the park is this year, September would be much better and less crowded.
   

I'm slowly but surely reading Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. ($9.99)

I'm traditionally more of a movie guy than a book guy, but my quest for more great cyberpunk has lead me all the way back to the roots of the genre. It's really cool to look back at what an author believed the future would be like, especially when they're right about parts.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Neil and Terry are actually friends. I read the story of how they met once but I can't quite remember all the details. I think they were on the same train to London or something. Neil is also friends with Tori Amos which is kind of interesting. He has sequestered himself away to her different homes in the past so he can quietly write his books. Terry and Neil even wrote a book together (Good Omens), to be honest it's not my favorite but I would definitely recommend you take a look at Neil Gaiman.

Oh... one more, you should read Neverwhere.

Try Ready Player One. It's about a world that's become obsessed with this virtual game, but there's a conspiracy and an interesting dynamic between online personas and real life. If you like audiobooks, Wil Wheaton narrates. (BONUS! The ebook is on sale for $2.80!) and if you have any passing interest in SF, definitely read The Martian. It has math in it AND I DIDN'T EVEN CARE IT WAS THAT GOOD. Basically, an astronaut gets left behind on a mission to Mars and must survive on his own...

I once read a Newt Gingrich-approved scifi novel about EMPs called 'one second after'. Gingrich had written the foreword so I knew I was in for a fun ride. Surprise surprise the hero turns out to be a white, conservative straight man whose hunting and gunplay skills got him through the worst of society's downfall, all while sneering at liberal ideas and people. In the end he wins and becomes the leader of a glorious right-wing gun society.

It's a must-read if you ask me. Chuffing hilarious. Check it

I just had to say "out loud" how thrilled I am that you have read that book and enjoyed it. It was one of the last things I read that really had me engaged from cover to end. On the off chance you (or anyone else who enjoyed A Visit From the Goon Squad) are looking for something to follow this, try Geek Love. Another amazing female fiction writer.

If you mean libertarian literature or novels, Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash and Diamond Age are great books set in a kind of anarchist society, though that isn't the focus of the book.

I'd also suggest Freedom (TM), which can be read independently, but is a sequel to another novel.

You may want to check out these:
Anarcho-capitalist literature

Edit:
Some more

Outside of Ancap novels, I'd recommend 1,001 Arabian Nights, The Catcher in the Rye, The Giver, Brave New World, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Ender's Game.

Anyone who provides the amazon.com links for their picks earns bonus exp.

Mine isn't technically a DND book, but The Name of the Wind saved the fantasy genre for me. Lots of great inspiration for a DM.

Fiction Books

Cryptonomicon - Very few books make up a cypher system based on playing cards, have a story that spans WW2 through the present day and in large part revolve around creating an alternate digital currency, a data haven and startup life.

Neuromancer - this is the book that created cyberpunk and that inspired all those bad movie ideas about hacking in 3D systems. That being said, it marked a real turning point in SciFi. Without this book "cyber" security specialists would probably be called something else.

Snow Crash - This is much more breezy than the other two but still has very recognizable hacking/security elements to it and is just fun.

Non Fiction

Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman - This isn't a book about technology so much as deduction and figuring things out (while being hilariously entertaining).

I included all these here in large part because they are what inspired me to get into development and sysadmin work and I bet that I'm about 20 years older than you if you're just getting into the field - so there's a decent chance that your coworkers are into them too.

This biography of Paul Dirac is excellent.

This autobiography (in the form of a sequence of anecdotes) of Richard Feynman is a classic.

This biography of Robert Oppenheimer is extremely good as well.

This book contains short biographies all the most significant figures involved with every Hilbert Problem.

This is a work of science fiction where the main character belongs to a monastic order devoted to mathematics and theoretical science. It's among my favorite books.

edit: Who downvotes this? Really? Even if you think you've got better options... just leave a comment with them for OP.

For general fantasy I've enjoyed Gentleman Bastard, The Kingkiller Chronicle, and The Broken Empire. I listen to Kingkiller Chronicle fairly often due to the amount of commuting I do where I live.

For more urban/fantasy maybe try Lives of Tao, Iron Druid Chronicles, or anything by Neil Gaiman. The anniversary edition of American Gods was really excellent on audio-book. Not sure if the others have audio editions or not.

I've also really enjoyed stuff by Drew Hayes (a webnovelist). His banner series is SuperPowereds. But I though NPCs was a great take on an old fantasy trope. Neither come in audio formats unfortunately.

Good luck.

I have two books which I always tell people to read if they haven't. All Book lovers will enjoy them, so I hope you get to them even if I don't win (BTW: Thanks!).

First is: A Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It has a great magical realism vibe, and is told backwards in time. Short, interesting and downright awesome.

Second is: The first book of the Kingkiller Chronicles, The Name of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It's the beginning of a fantasy series that you will get sucked into. If you think fantasy is all rainbows, magic and faeries, this book will show you an entirely new dimension.

What a great reading list you have created so far, my book club will be happy to see all of this! Happy reading!

Oh, I would definitely NOT start with American Gods. It's good, but it's a bit of a bear to get through at times. Neverwhere or Stardust for Gaiman, for sure. I have a beat up old copy of Neverwhere that tends to live in one of my purses most of hte time. It is one of my very favorite books. You can read the first bit of it for free on Amazon using the "look inside" thingie.

http://www.amazon.com/Neverwhere-A-Novel-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0060557818/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397008517&sr=8-1&keywords=neverwhere

Maybe you should not go back to read unsatisfying literature.
There is a lot of sub-par fantasy by the numbers stuff that I don't really think is worth the time. But you will find a lot of great fantasy or speculative fiction that still is intellectually and stylistically satisfying.

Some subjective recommendations:

You can go back reading classics like Mervyn Peakes Gormenghast series.

Or contemporary fantasy authors with more interesting settings or ideas, like R. Scott Bakkers Prince of Nothing series.

China Mieville was mentioned in this thread before. Mieville is on the opposite end of the political spectrum, but speaks highly of Wolfe and his influence on his writing nonetheless.

If have no problem with challenging narrative structures: Vellum by Hal Duncan (as you can see from the reviews, not everyones cup of tea).

Crossing over to SciFi: Geoff Ryman, Air is one of my all time favorite novels.

Robert Charles Wilson is also always worth reading.

Googling around a bit I found this list: Best Outside-the-box Speculative Fiction, which contains Wolfe, most of my recommendations and many more that I have not read yet, so I wager it's a good place to start!

You might have read it already, but Patrick Rothfuss's King Killer Chronicle is pretty good and definitely has a strong female character. It's a fantasy book, but myself and other SciFi readers I've talked to seem to enjoy it.


Here's a synopsis from goodreads: Told in Kvothe's own voice, this is the tale of the magically gifted young man who grows to be the most notorious wizard his world has ever seen. The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king form a gripping coming-of-age story unrivaled in recent literature.


Also, I like to move it move it!


Edit: a word.

There are a ton of different editions and compilations of the Amber books. It might be useful to poke around at the different editions if you're looking for a bargain.

Some potentially helpful links:

If you think you might want to read all of the Amber books and not just Volume 1, you may want to consider purchasing (or borrowing, whatever) The Great Book of Amber which is vol. 1-10 bound together. It's a doorstopper, so be forewarned. I do not think it's available electronically as an omnibus. Amazon link: https://smile.amazon.com/Great-Book-Amber-Complete-Chronicles/dp/0380809060/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1501692577&sr=8-2&keywords=nine+princes+in+amber

Secondly, for just Vol. 1 Nine Princes in Amber, for some reason the listings for the paper copies and the electronic copies aren't linked up very well.

Paper/Audible (the Amazon link GR provides): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0380014300/ref=x_gr_e_nl_general_sin?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_e_nl_general_sin-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0380014300&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2

Kindle edition (Amazon link): https://smile.amazon.com/Nine-Princes-Amber-Book-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B011MYPIY0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1501692577&sr=8-1&keywords=nine+princes+in+amber

When it's raining, I love sleeping in then making a lazy day breakfast of sauteed onions and peppers, with scrambled eggs and a bagel as well as coffee. Then it's video games!

Thanks for the contest, and I would appreciate this book if I win. :)

I hardly think someone making racist comments is the same thing as someone deciding to no longer practice their religion in the same way as you (unless you take a very black and white approach to the world in which anyone who doesn't do things the way you do is wrong and sinning. In that case I guess leaving a religion would have the same weight as maligning others merely because of skin color).

No one is forcing people to read their writings about their thoughts relative to faith. Personally, I find it interesting to read these narratives and helpful to me in finding the words to vocalize why I stay. If you don't get anything out of them: cool! There are plenty of other awesome things you could spend your time reading instead.

The takeaway for me from her post was merely that we should be less judgmental about the choices of others that aren't harmful to those around them, which is a message that's been shared in as lofty a venue as general conference.

I agree with you that people who leave are usually no better than people who stay at avoiding judgment. We're all just people. That doesn't mean we can't enter into a conversation about what it means to improve in that area and steps we can take to reconcile our natural tendencies with the mercy and generosity of spirit we should be extending to others. I think this post particularly was a good example of that and one that nearly mirrored a discussion I had with a group of women from my ward this week.

Spin Robert Charles Wilson

From Amazon:

>One night the stars go out. From that breathtaking "what if," Wilson (Blind Lake, etc.) builds an astonishingly successful mélange of SF thriller, growing-up saga, tender love story, father-son conflict, ecological parable and apocalyptic fable in prose that sings the music of the spheres. The narrative time oscillates effortlessly between Tyler Dupree's early adolescence and his near-future young manhood haunted by the impending death of the sun and the earth. Tyler's best friends, twins Diane and Jason Lawton, take two divergent paths: Diane into a troubling religious cult of the end, Jason into impassioned scientific research to discover the nature of the galactic Hypotheticals whose "Spin" suddenly sealed Earth in a "cosmic baggie," making one of its days equal to a hundred million years in the universe beyond. As convincing as Wilson's scientific hypothesizing is--biological, astrophysical, medical--he excels even more dramatically with the infinitely intricate, minutely nuanced relationships among Jason, Diane and Tyler, whose older self tries to save them both with medicines from Mars, terraformed through Jason's genius into an incubator for new humanity. This brilliant excursion into the deepest inner and farthest outer spaces offers doorways into new worlds--if only humankind strives and seeks and finds and will not yield compassion for our fellow beings.

I love books - one that I want right now in particular is Wool by Hugh Howie because it comes heartily recommended by a close friend, and is in one of my favorite genres - science fiction. It's also the beginning of a series, and I need a new series to get hooked to, since it allows for a much longer period of entertainment.

And in the immortal words of Vonnegut, so it goes.

That perception amongst most programmers is only because good sales people are like good programmers: rare.

The common lament that out of 10 applicants for an entry-level programming job these days, only one will actually know how to write up a linked list data structure and walk it in just one direction for one iteration, even when given their pick of programming language, half a day, any language/system reference manuals they please, no constraints on performance/efficiency/aesthetics (we just want to see you even remember a linked list, and can do some minimal programming), and no Net access? It applies in a similar manner to sales people, too.

When you see a sales person coasting along as an order taker, or worse, taking the team down a notch by overpromising and underdelivering using deceit or prevarication with the customer, you're watching a Blub sales person in action. These techniques are all they've ever known to work, and they cannot conceive of sales techniques further up the power continuum.

I do both sales and coding these days. They are each an art form when practiced by passionate, caring professionals. I'm far from proficient in either (not an avout in Anathem lingo), but I'm good enough to keep enough clients happy to have my own book of business for over 5 years. So I think I can reasonably claim to know good coders and sellers when I see them.

Not a specific recommendation, but see if your local library has access to the Overdrive app which will allow you to read ebooks from them for free.

Wool by Hugh Howey is a sci-fi-ish book you might like. Quick and easy read with a compelling plot.

Agreed. I'm a fan of Gaiman but American Gods was just 'okay.' I highly recommend Neverwhere or Stardust if you want to try something else. Both are much more vibrant (not quite the right word for Neverwhere but it will do) and better paced I felt.

I'm not an ME, but these are some of my (more computery-ish) favorites that might have general engineering appeal:

The Difference Engine - proto-steampunk!

Gödel, Escher, Bach - essays on logicians' wet dreams.

Anathem - mathy and fantastic.

House of Leaves - you'll either love it or it will just piss you off...

Also, anything by Phillip K Dick or Kurt Vonnegut. And Feynman's (first) autobiography is definitely a must.

Would love to throw ny two cents in and suggest "Perdido Street Station" by China Mieville, and generally books by Neil Gaiman. My favourites are "Neverwhere" and "American Gods". These are truly entertaining books! If you want a great series to follow (I often find myself reading more whilst following a series), I would go for Stephen Kings "Dark Tower" books, take a look at the wiki [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Tower_(series).

You can find physical copies of most older books on amazon for like $4.

Half price books, abebooks, thrift stores and shopping around for ebooks are all also options.

If you are looking for specific books there are some pretty reasonably priced compilations out there.

The Belgariad volumes one and two can be gotten for around $14.

All ten volumes of The Chronicles of Amber can be purchased for about $12.

All three volumes of the Dark Elf Trilogy can be purchased for around $12.

If you look around there are some pretty great deals out there.

Children of Time and Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovksy both have strong sociological themes. If you enjoy these books you might also want to check out Semiosis: A Novel by Susan Burke.

Foundation by Isaac Asimov is about the fall and rise of a galactic empire. It is a bit dated in terms of science fiction but a classic in the genre.

Exhalation and Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang are collections of short stories and some of them contain strong sociological themes around communication and intersubjective understanding.

A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge also have some interesting speculative sociology.

Hominids: Volume One of The Neanderthal Parallax by Robert J. Sawyer also contains interesting speculative anthropology and sociology (but not a very interesting plot IMO) and is also worth a read.

> As an engineering student, adherence to logically engineered ships is cool. :P

Yeah, I have a physics background, so I'm right there with you. It's just that the ships already exist in a world with nonsense piled upon nonsense, so at this point I don't necessarily feel the need to make any part realistic, as long as it's cool. It's a little like saying the saddle for a wizard to ride on a flying dragon should physically be near the middle instead of near the front.

By the way, one set of sci-fi books I really enjoyed as far as realism is concerned are the Expanse books. The authors say that the books are emphatically not hard sci-fi, but still, they only seem to go into "magic" technology where they have to. For example, ships have an "Epstein drive" that makes space travel reasonable and economical, but it thrusts like a normal rocket, rather than warping around as in Star Trek. So if people travel from Mars to Jupiter, they accelerate at 1g for half the trip so they can walk around in the ship at 1g, and then they flip the ship around and decelerate at 1g for the second half. Trips can take a long time, obviously, but it physically makes sense, and interplanetary distance is such that if you work it out, travel times would take weeks or months rather than years. They describe how some ships end up feeling a little like towers when they're under acceleration, since they extend away from the main thruster, so "down" ends up being back toward the thruster.

Fun fact: If you used real-life technology to build a nuclear rocket and accelerated at 1g for 10 days, you could get to Alpha Centauri in 133 years. (One-way, no slowdown.) The estimated cost would be about one entire month of US GNP. (So no one makes any food during that time, or anything else.) (This wikipedia page is cool.)

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars) was also enjoyable to me for similar reasons. Two thumbs up.

Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles.
The first part is 'The name of the wind'
Genre: Fantasy

It's about a boy growing up in a traveling group and also learning to use magic, basically. I don't want you to know too much, as this is a no-brainer recommendation for me.

I was gifted this book on my birthday and am almost done with it by now.
It is a beautiful work of art. Never gets boring and is written so vividly, that I am baffled at how good a book can be.

Especially if you like Harry Potter or have a thing for music I would bet that this story will resonate with you.
But even if that is not the case, I am certain that you will like this book!

Edit: https://www.amazon.com/Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicle-Band/dp/0756404746/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509725513&sr=8-1&keywords=the+name+of+the+wind

The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss (and The Name of the Wind, the first in the trilogy, is also good). I only came across them a year ago or so, but they are absolutely fantastic and beautiful books. It takes restrain to read other books rather than these two over and over again.

This was taken with on of my favorite authors Patrick Rothfuss, so it was pretty amazing just getting to meet him. Then when I come back home I see that he ended up posting this pic on his person facebook page. Which was just amazing.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicles/dp/0756405890/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1377262476&sr=8-3&keywords=patrick+rothfuss

Some of my favorites:

• The Myth of Sisyphus for philosophical essays.
  
• The Road and The Stand for dystopian fiction.
  
• American Gods or Neverwhere for fantasy.
  
• Brave New World, The Picture of Dorian Gray or Les Miserables for classics.
  
• Harry Potter is my favorite book of all time. It's pure story that is fun to read, evokes emotion and has great depth.
  
• The Beach is good to begin with, better if you're a traveler or like utopian type fiction. (Think of it as a dirtier, contemporary version of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine.)
  
• The Autobiography of King Henry VIII for historical biographies. Note that this one is fiction, but well researched.
  
• A few final random ones are Flowers for Algernon, Angela's Ashes and Italian Folktales.

Not trying to be a pedant but for anyone trying to find the book the title is spelled Daemon. Definitely second the recommendation though, I loved the book. I'd also recommend the sequel, Freedom^^TM.

The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss (AKA The Name of the Wind) If you are a fan of fantasy or just enjoy reading read these books. They are fairly new and already on everyone's all time best fantasy/sci-fi book lists. They would make amazing movies. The story isn't driven by the fantasy aspects of the story. It's character driven and would have wide enough appeal.

Wool by Hugh Howey. First in a trilogy. You can download the first part for free to see if this is for you.

He has another good book that might be a bit easier to read, called Sand. The first part of that is also a free download to try.

Half a King + sequels by Joe Abercrombie.

Zone One is my favorite Zombie Novel. It actually has some character development. I found this on my public library's Overdrive ebook collection.

Tooth and Nail was also a fun read.

Krinberry mentioned Wool below, that was also pretty engaging.

Good, because I WAS LOOKING FOR AN EXCUSE TO PLUG THIS BOOK

GO BUY THE NAME OF THE WIND IMMEDIATELY AND DON'T COME BACK INTO THIS THREAD UNTIL YOU ARE AS UNHEALTHILY OBSESSED WITH IT AS I AM.

Seriously though it's a fantastic book, one of if not the best I've ever read, and Patrick Rothfuss (the author) is not only an incredible author, but also a pretty awesome guy. He was the intern in the Acquisitions Incorporated podcast for a season, that's how I found out about him.

Something that stands out to me is his love for Palahniuk. Has he read Geek Love? It's really amazing, and Chuck is a fan of it as well.

<with a french waiters accent>

For madam,

I would propose either china miéville "Perdido..." or Robert Charles Wilson "spin". Both weave interesting believable characters within a good sf plot.

But If you want a page turner, I would say Eliantris or Warbreaker both by brandon sanderson. They're fantasy and really hard to put down.

In the end, I would propose "To say nothing of the dog" by connie Willis. Very clever and funny with a time travel theme.

</with a french waiters accent>

( Damn, I really liked to be a bookseller...)

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. One of the best written fantasy books ever IMO. It's the first in a trilogy that's not quite finished.

The character who said this quote is actually the subject of the short story The Lightning Tree in the Rogues anthology that George RR Martin edited in case anyone is familiar with that book.

I definitely recommend these books to anyone, including people who have never enjoyed fantasy. They are universally great literature.

In fantasy, either to Demons or Fey, holding someone's true name means you have control over them. Feys and Demons themselves will often go great lengths in order to conceal their own true name.

I've started reading Name of the Wind, a high fantasy novel about a wizard that deals with true names! I'm also two chapters in but I'm loving it so far.

The Hunger Games Trilogy. I liked the Wheel of Time and others mentioned below.

When I was very young I really liked Piers Anthony's Xanth series (first three or so anyway) and although not exactly the same:
Discworld. Read it bitches. Yeah, it's comedy. It's Sir Terry Friggin Pratchett and there are so many Discworld books I don't know the count...but they're all good, and some pass into the realm of great. Every. Damn. One. Read some.

Finally, The Black Company...very good trilogy following a mercenary company as they navigate the politics of a changing world. Bold, vicious, well-written...reminds me a bit of Martin's style.

If you are interested, I highly recommend the speculative [Mars trilogy by K.S. Robinson] (http://amzn.com/0553560735). More than just about the colonization and terraforming, the books go deep into the geopolitical ramifications of having a new colony.

Plus, Robinson is a kickass author. My second favorite after Asimov.

In Red Mars, they use a combination of techniques to enrich the atmosphere. The most effective was to aerobrake a series of comets through the atmosphere, melting the ice and adding gases.

Book one

Book two

Absolutely incredible short story

Book one had such an uncomfortable start for me, felt too tropey and overdone, but I'm glad I stuck around and got into it because it really picks up into an amazing couple of books.

I just really hope book three is released during my lifetime.

One of the character's names is Ambrose.

The Egg is such a great story. It's not by Stephen King, though - it's by Andy Weir, who also wrote the excellent, excellent book The Martian

I cannot say enough good things about The Name of the Wind. it's the first book in the Kingkiller Chronicles.

If you love fantasy and strong female characters, the Eye of the World is the first book in the just recently finished Wheel of time series. Amazing series, long, deep, complicated, but amazing.

I don't read much fiction anymore, but by far my favorite fantasy series of all time is Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber. My alias for the past 15 years (Grays) is derived from that series.

It's a crossover between modern world and fantasy realm fiction. The series is split cleanly into two story arcs, each five books long. It's short--the ten book series is only 1200-ish pages, and compiled into a single volume at a very affordable $16. Very little "scenery"; his descriptions are short and use language very well to imply details of a setting while he focuses on characters and rapid dialogue.

Read the first chapter on Amazon. If you like it, get the whole thing.

Oh if you like dystopian, then check out Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Awesome fantasy - Patrick Rothfuss The Name of the Wind. And a really cool non-fiction survival story is The Tiger by John Vaillant, about a man-eating tiger terrorizing a village in Russia.

Totally check out the library, most these days do inter-library loans within counties or regions, so if they don't have any of the above, you can request them for free. Enjoy!

I don't know if 'beautifully written' is the way I would describe it, but the first 100 pages of Snow Crash are amazing. Read the 'Look Inside' at Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FBJCJE/

The story slows down after that, but I think it's still a fun read.

If you like the show, I recommend you check out the book series it's based on, by James S.A. Corey. The first book is Leviathan Wakes.

The show looks like it will be good. The books have already proven themselves to be good.

For anyone who would like to know, the following books I've read are my favorite and I'd really recommend them to anyone: The Martian by Andy Weir, Gerald's Game by Stephen King, The Panther by Nelson DeMille, Unflinching by Jodi Mitic, American Sniper by Chris Kyle, and Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

EDIT: Oh, and Blackwater - The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill.

EDDIT 2: Oh, and Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card which is so much better than the movie. The movie does not do this novel justice. And Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly.

I just read Daemon, and the sequel Freedom(TM) by daniel Suarez and they are both excellent. The deal with corporate control in the government and the future of the internet. It also makes heroes out of WoW players.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. absolutely fantastic, very little in the way of politics, and i was hooked by the end of the first page.

also, the Discword series is a lot of fun, but it's a comedy fantasy. still, very funny.

The Chronicles of Amber- Roger Zelazny, you can get it in a towering omnibus here. Still some of the best sci-fi fantasy authors and works ever, though highly under rated. Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll, Parallel Universes, high fantasy kings and blood feuds and swords and castles. His book of short stories are impeccable too IMO

He won more than a few Hugo awards for his work. In particular outside of Amber, I would recommend his short story 24 Views of Mr Fuji


For /r/worldbuilding I'd put him much higher than F. Herbert and George RR Martin.

Oh man. I would really like a Kindle Fire for the added functionality. I'd really enjoy it for being able to get children's books and putting movies on it for my son for those long road trips and such. It'd also be neat for getting some ebooks for some harder to find books. Would really like Snow Crash actually. One of those books I've been wanting to read since I was in high school, but never really had a chance at it.

Oh, and thank you for the wonderful contest. You're going to make somebody's day. Heh.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. A big book that's taken me 2-3 months to go through. I read a few hours a week and at one point, I misplaced it and went through two other books: the Other Boleyn Girl and George Orwell's 1984. Both incredibly amazing books that I highly recommend!


EDIT: I haven't posted books to The Paper Back Swap in a long time and I'm thinking I'm going to get back into it after hearing about all these good books!

It looks like Fox already owns the rights (ugh), but a television series based on "The Name of the Wind" novels would be fantastic!

If you're looking for a good Sci-Fi read, take a look:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicles/dp/0756404746

Patrick Rothfus' "Name of the Wind" is the first book in an ongoing trilogy. A coming of age story without being young adult. It has some intrigue like Dune and a sense of humor and danger like Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. It is a medieval era fantasy but the "magic" has certain rules that make it more interesting then something like Harry Potter.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicle/dp/0756404746

If you liked that episode, check out the book Dragon's Egg by Robert L. Foreward. It's a great read, with a similar concept underneath it.

Not perhaps relevant, but The Dragon's Egg by Robert L. Forward is a fun read that ponders an existence on the surface of a neutron star.

1. Chronicles of Amber (series) - Roger Zelazny
   
2. Books 1-5: 10/10 | Books 6-10: 9/10
   
3. Fantasy
   
4. One of my first forays into fantasy; I was probably around 13 or 14 when I first read these books, and I come back to them every couple of years. The Corwin cycle (the first five books) are probably my favorite fantasy books of all time. The writing is great -- fast-paced, clever, descriptive, enthralling, and stylish. Simply put, this is an essential series for any serious fantasy reader's collection.
   
5. Complete 10 book series in paperback on Amazon for $16. Read more on Wikipedia.

Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. It is like Niven and Clarke in that the plot focuses on a big, mysterious object; however, it is a character-driven story first. The hard sci-fi elements, as they gradually emerge, deliver the goods as well. It's a great book; it won the Hugo for a reason.

Edit: Avoid reading the synopsis on amazon. I think it gives away a bit too much.

That polish looks AMAZING! So gorgeous!

My favorite book of all time is "Name of the Wind" by Pat Rothfuss. I know the author, but that doesn't affect my opinion of the book, it stands on its own! The sequel is nearly as amazing, but the final book of the trilogy is out yet, which is a little painful!

Have you read the 'Red Mars' series? They're by Kim Stanley Robinson and are pretty much exactly the sort of hard sci-fi + character development that you seem to enjoy. They're also pleasantly topical given Curiosity's successful landing.

My all-time favorite book is Katherine Dunn's Geek Love. Though it's set in the real world it leans more towards fantasy than science fiction. But I know several science fiction fans who thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I think it might be to your liking as well.

https://smile.amazon.com/Geek-Love-Novel-Katherine-Dunn/dp/0375713344/

A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge - Absolutely fantastic. Full of well-fleshed-out technology, a great understanding of actual science. Top notch storytelling with a complex setting to back it up. I think Vinge writes some of the most exciting scifi narrative out there.

After you read Hyperion, get Ilium, also by Dan Simmons. Kind of a cool reinterpretation/continuation of Homer's Iliad and the Trojan War. Has a cliff-hanger of an ending that picks up again in the sequel Olympos. I didn't like Olympos quite as much, though.

First off, THANK YOU FOR THE WONDERFUL CONTEST!!!

If I won the kindle, I would read the crap out of it! I currently have a very good library in my house, but I have gotten to the point where I have no room! My husband actually said, no more books! I am heartbroken! I have been borrowing from friends like mad and am rereading series (which I do any ways). I do have an Amazon Prime account, so If I had the Kindle Fire, I would be able to "borrow" books from Amazon for free, which would be a big difference in my checkbook. I don't own any sort of Kindle as of this point, and have always wanted one. I will add a Kindle Book to my wish list, since right now, it wasn't worth having one on there. Thanks again!

Have you heard of Outlander by Diana Gabaldon? Historical-Fiction-Fantasy-Romance-Intrigue novels, just started being made into a tv show this past month. It's probably the only series I have read as many times as Harry Potter.

I also just finished The Name of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. Great book. Fantasy, but a refreshing take on the typical tropes, and explores some cool themes.

I also love Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrell. It's kind of like Jane Austen meets Fantasy.

The Tines from Verner Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep are incredibly awesome, unique beings. They're doglike creatures who live in packs of collective intelligence that communicates across their composite bodies by soundwaves.

Too few Tines in a group organism, and they don't have enough brain power to think properly. Too many, and they jam up their own soundwave frequencies and can't think properly.

All of the implications of this are thought out very well by Verner Vinge. What happens when members die, when new members are born, what happens when packs get too close to each other, what happens when members of individual packs get too far away from each other for soundwaves to travel effectively and so on. Everything is done on a rock-solid hard science fiction foundation. It's a great book.

No problem. That specific quote is from The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. It's a sequel to The Name of the Wind. One of the best written fantasy books around, and a great read even if you're not into the genre. Fans are eagerly awaiting the third and final book.

A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge. One of the best SciFi epics I've ever read; good enough that I re-read it every few years. There is also an annotated Kindle version available. Vinge helped popularize the term "singularity" for the time when machines exceed human intelligence; you can read his 1993 speech on the topic here.

Here are some fantasy/sci-fi books that I liked at that age, or would have liked had they been published. A couple of them have some sexual content, but nothing overly detailed.

DEFINITELY "The Dark is Rising" series. They're short, but excellent. Also The Hunger Games is a good bet (never read the sequels, but that first book is great). Other suggestions: The Name of the Wind, Waylander, Rose of the Prophet, 1984, To Your Scattered Bodies Go, The Strain, any of the Dragonlance books (I would start at the beginning, with Dragons of Autumn Twilight), or nearly anything by Stephen King.

Andy is a great writer, I really enjoys his work. I have already pre-ordered my hardback copy of The Martian. he did an AMA a little over a year ago.

also, as you can tell from the "other discussions" tab, this story gets submitted a lot (not that I am complaining, and excuse to re-read it is good enough for me).

Try Fallen Dragon by Hamilton..

Also Snow Crash, which does have another book in it's universe but is stand alone, the other book is Diamond Age Which I also recommend. If you end up liking Stephenson then try Anathem.

I too am a fan of stand alone novels, I wish author weren't pressured to turn everything into a saga.

This is one of my all-time favorite series. Awesome magic system and worldbuilding. The full series is currently published in one volume, available here. It's funny that all 10 of these books are about the size of Oathbringer.

A lot of sci-fi books predict private space exploration as well. My favorite example is the Mars Trilogy. However, the supposed leaders in commercial spaceflight, like SpaceX for example, are subsidized by NASA just like the companies that were developing Ares I and V. The only difference is that their projects cost less. But the reason they cost less is not because they are innovating the field by being commercial enterprises, rather, they cost less because they only go barely past the Kármán line whereas the Ares rockets could go to the moon.

oh, Dragonlance <3 if one dives into that series, hold on to your butts! theres SO MANY OF THEM!

i managed to get ahold of the annotated original trillogy. i love it so much.

Chronicles of Amber is another good multi-book set.

I'm about to start Wool by Hugh Howey as several friends have recommended it. It's a long one but could be a good summer read (and is very post-apocalyptic like several of our other selections).

1. The Name of the Wind- Patrick Rothfuss
   
2. 9.5/10
   
3. High Fantasy, Literature
   
4. Beautifully written and gripping. A true adventure story full of mirth and woe.
   
5. Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

Dresden Files really caught my attention. They start off as decent stand alone, but Jim Butcher just keeps building on himself, and once they get really rolling a couple in, I couldn't stop reading them. I went through them 5+ at a time.

The Alex Verus novels were also ones that once I picked up, I didn't put them down until I was done. Unfortunately, they're all quite short.

Name of the Wind I read in one sitting. Its sequel... meh... it was ok. By no means was it a bad book, just nowhere near as good as the first one, in my opinion.

Escaping Heaven. This book. I picked it up on some free kindle deal. I wasn't expecting much, but it was just so damn good. Excellent writing, very funny, well developed. I can't recommend this one enough.

I really enjoyed the Expanse series, by James SA Corey (Pen name for Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) so far. There's a trilogy and two novellas out now, with three more novels expected.

EDIT: Should mention the first book in the series is Leviathan Wakes. Picked it up because of the GRRM blurb on the cover but absolutely loved it.

I fondly remember the Xanth series from my youth, but I haven't read it in ages, so I don't know if it holds up.

Too Many Curses by A. Lee Martinez has a kobold protagonist trying to keep their master's castle running while the master is gone. It's pretty hilarious, imo.

Daemon and Freedom. Great books about a game developer that dies and leaves behind a Daemon that does some cool stuff (no spoilers).

Highly Recommended if you are a tech/geek/science/internet fan. It is based in the real world, current time and technology so it is really believable.

Sci Fi, ok cool. Here are a few very entertaining Sci-Fi audiobooks (you can actually find some of these free).

Infected by Scott Sigler, with a sequel titled 'Contagious'. If you search for Scott Sigler online, you will be directed to his website, and can go through itunes to get the free podiocast.
http://www.amazon.com/Infected-Novel-Scott-Sigler/dp/030740630X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1311807514&sr=8-3

Robopocalypse
http://www.amazon.com/Robopocalypse-Novel-Daniel-H-Wilson/dp/0385533853/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311807626&sr=1-1

For fantasy, I highly recommend 'The Name of the Wind' by patrick Rothfuss
http://www.amazon.com/Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicles-Day/dp/0756405890/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311807743&sr=1-1

The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett
http://www.amazon.com/Warded-Man-Peter-V-Brett/dp/0345518705/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311807801&sr=1-1

For Horror I recommend
Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
http://www.amazon.com/Darkly-Dreaming-Dexter-Vintage-Lizard/dp/0307473708/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311807869&sr=1-1

Serial Uncut
http://www.amazon.com/Serial-Uncut-J-Konrath/dp/1456401580/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311808020&sr=1-1

For the taste of apocalyptic greatness I recommend
World War Z
http://www.amazon.com/World-War-Oral-History-Zombie/dp/0307346617/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311808107&sr=1-1

One Second After
http://www.amazon.com/One-Second-After-William-Forstchen/dp/0765356864/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311808128&sr=1-1

I have other audiobooks that touches multiple categories. For a nice series, there are two I really love. The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King, and The Dresden Files series.

I know I'm late to the game but I thoroughly enjoyed The Chronicles of Amber series (Wikipedia Link).

Good set of books, might be considered more fantasy than Sci-Fi.

James S. A. Corey reminds me of Crichton in a lot of ways. I strongly recommend Leviathan Wakes. STRONGLY RECOMMEND.

Have you ever seen the table of nuclides? The neutron is included on this version of the "physicist's periodic table." I don't see the neutron being added to the chemist's periodic table since a free neutron does not hold an electron and would not do chemistry. An "ionized neutron" doesn't even make sense to me. Neutron stars are cool but not very relevant to most chemists (if you like neutron star speculation, you might like The Dragon's Egg by Robert L Forward).

One Second After

It has the added bonus of being based on a pentagon study about what would happen to the US if an EMP were detonated. Author is former
Military. Really cool and fun read. There’s three in the series.

Alan Rickman with a goofy smile.

Also:

Protege of Alan Moore, wrote one of the best comic series to come out of the industry, then did some books, including one co-authored with Terry Pratchett. Has a writing blog that's worth a look, too.

Mars is very very amazing. So much about it screams Terraform ME!!

The Martian Day is only 30minutes longer than earth.
It would have 4 seasons due to a similar inclination in its tilt.
Possibly vast amounts of underground water.

Sigh.. Best books I ever read.

Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson

Based on your criteria, I'd say start with some Young Adult stuff first, it tends to be shorter and less convoluted than the adult high fantasy stuff like WoT and GoT. Maybe Graceling would interest you?

If you want something light hearted that won't take up too much of your brain space, I'd say try Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, the Landover series by Terry Brooks, or the Xanth series by Piers Anthony. All fantasy books plenty of comic relief.

One of my favorite setups for Science Fiction

1. Ben Bova The Grand Tour Is a Grand tour of the solar system. Everything from Asteroids to Jupiter.
   
   
2. The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. It's all about terra-forming Mars.
   
   
3. The Uplift Trilogy (there are actually two of them, the first has books loosely associated with one another and the second trilogy has direct sequels. Both are great) by David Brin.
   
   
4. The Fall Revolution Series by Ken Macleod. Is about the Singularity, being human, colonizing space, and everything in between.

I had a lot of fun reading Dark Matter by Blake Crouch, like I did when reading The Martian and Ready Player One. I genuinely didn't know where the story was going to go or how it was going to end with this one.

Also, Andy Weir has a new one coming out on November 14th called Artemis

Wool by Hugh Howey or anything else by Hugh Howey. I've been eyeing Sand for quite awhile.

Steven Erikson - Malazan Book of the Fallen

Brandon Sanderson - Mistborn

Brandon Sanderson - The Stormlight Archive

Peter Brett - The Demon Cycle

R. Scott Bakker - The Second Apocalypse

Joe Abercrombie - The First Law

Scott Lynch - The Gentleman Bastard

Patrick Rothfuss - The Kingkiller Chronicle

All excellent. Some slightly more excellent than others.

These definitely aren't the worst-case-scenario, but I still wouldn't pick them up if I saw them on a shelf. They just don't spark my interest.

THAT being said, two of my favorite books - Theft of Swords and The Name of the Wind - are books that I would NEVER have picked up if a friend didn't recommend them. I don't think your examples are bad because (1) it looks like art rather than a photo, and (2) enough of the character's face is hidden (or their back is turned) to still let the reader imagine what the character looks like.

The Martian is VERY mathematical, and awesome. Ive recommended it to 6 friends and they each read it in 48 hours. Seriously, check this out - http://www.amazon.com/The-Martian-Novel-Andy-Weir-ebook/dp/B00EMXBDMA

Fiction: The Kingkiller Chronicle. /r/Fantasy has a hateboner for it, but it's one of the best selling fantasy books of all time for a reason.

Non-Fiction: American Progressivism: A Reader. It's a collection of speeches, essays, and letters outlining a Progressive vision for society, from the Progressive Era. These ideas formed the basis for modern American society.

Leviathan Wakes by James Corey was the best space sci fi I've read in awhile. It starts as an intersolar detective story, quickly turns epic. The political intrigue is a ton of fun, and the characters are top notch.

http://www.amazon.com/Leviathan-Wakes-James-S-A-Corey/dp/0316129089

Love it, Great read.

http://www.amazon.com/Dragons-Egg-Del-Rey-Impact/dp/034543529X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369884995&sr=1-2&keywords=dragons+egg

Fahrenheit 451 is a quick real and well worth it.

Have you read any Neal Stephenson? I bet you'd like Anathem. Definitely a lot of philosophy in it. It's kind of a slow start, but well worth sticking with!

Amazon links for books mentioned in this thread:

\/u/thetrueonion (OP)

• Digital Apollo, David A. Mindell    -    Other books by this author
  
  
• Eagles of Mitsubishi, Jiro Horikoshi
  
  
• Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, Richard P. Feynman    -    Other books by this author
  
  
• A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking    -    Other books by this author
  
  
• Ignition!: An informal history of liquid rocket propellants, John D. Clark
  
  \/u/llothar:
  
  
• Amazon.com's list of books authored by Richard Feynman
  
  
• The Martian, Andy Weir
  
  \/u/DallasGreen:
  
  
• Closest I could find was Engineering and the Mind's Eye, Eugene S. Ferguson
  
  \/u/gearnut:
  
  
• Slide Rule, Nevil Shute    -    Other books by this author
  
  \/u/frothysasquatch:
  
  
• Waterpower in Lowell: Engineering and Industry in Nineteenth-Century America, Patrick M. Malone
  
  \/u/Beefstyles:
  
  
• Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed, Ben R. Rich
  
  \/u/CalledCaptainHook:
  
  
• One Second After, William R. Forstchen    -    Other books by this author
  
  \/u/75footubi:
  
  
• The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge, David McCullough
  
  \/u/Bradm77:
  
  
• The Soul of A New Machine, Tracy Kidder

Anathem, Neal Stephenson. Like all Neal's novels, it's dense and heavy on exposition. Those who like that kind of thing seem to love this one.

It's tough to compete wit hall these suggestions but I see that the Xanth series by Piers Anthony has not yet been mentioned. It's the series that had me fall in love with fantasy. A Spell for Chameleon (4.5/5 stars on Amazon after 179 votes!!) is the first in the series.

The Expanse books are amazing. The first one is called Leviathan Wakes

In case you haven't seen the TV show, the story is allllllmost hard scifi and takes place in an era where we've colonized mars and the asteroid belt along with some Jovian moons. It reflects on what happens to society when humanity is spread so far... both physically (belters are taller, skinnier, and have developed an entirely different kind of body language that can be easily seen through a space suit) and politically.

For a little more 'out there' sci fi, give the Long Earth series a try.

The conceit is this: Someone develops a device called a "Stepper". The stepper lets you step "right" or "left" into a parallel universe, only so slightly different from our own. If you step left, then right, you'll be back where you started. The major difference: Our universe seems to be the only one inhabited.

This starts a gold rush of sorts. We now have infinite resources, as you can just step a few paces to the left or right and find an entire world worth of raw material that can be brought back. The worlds get progressively more different the farther out you go. At one point there's a gap, where the earth itself was blown up by some unknown force. We wind up using this to cheaply launch space craft. Build it in one universe, step to the gap, and you're immediately out of the gravity well.

The book plays very hard on the "What if" scenario here.

Agree with robot_army_mutiny on Dick.
Mcmannis is a short story writer so any book you pick up will have some gems.
For Stephenson I like his newer work. Anathem is a good, intellectual read.
Also grab Nueromancer by Williams Gibson and any of the Wooster and Jeeves series by PG Wodehouse. The first is the father of cyberpunk and the second is a British humorist that Adams cites as a big influence.

1. Leviathan Wakes - James S. A. Corey
   
2. 8/10
   
3. Sci-Fi -- Space Opera.
   
4. Recent Hugo Award nominee. Starts us off in the distant future where humans have colonized the galaxy. Deals with the way different colonies treat each other (Inners and Belters.) This book blew me away with how good it was.
   
5. Amazon, Goodreads

For a more sci-fi feel check out the expanse series by James S.A Corey,
also the long price quartet by Daniel Abraham, is pretty neat as it is fantasy that isn't centered around Europe.
I would also recommend checking out the First Law series by Joe Abercrombie

the links are in order

• http://www.amazon.com/Leviathan-Wakes-Expanse-James-Corey/dp/0316129089/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375548738&sr=8-1&keywords=leviathan+wakes
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Summer-Long-Price-Quartet/dp/0765313405/ref=pd_sim_b_2
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Blade-Itself-First-Law-Book/dp/159102594X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375548876&sr=1-1&keywords=joe+abercrombie

I think Geek Love by Katherine Dunn is the perfect summer read. It's thought-provoking, but not in an overly lofty or challenging way, and if you like fucked up families (like your interest in Augusten Burroughs suggests), then you will really dig Geek Love.

And it has a wonderful answer.

Probably my favorite book ever even as a fan of math more than a practitioner.

Currently reading, and would like to finish:

1. Interaction Ritual Chains by Randal Collins
   
   Started in 2014, put down, would like to finish in 2015:
   
   
2. Aztecs by Inga Clendinnen
   
   
3. The Ego Tunnel by Thomas Metzinger
   
   Would like to re-read in 2015:
   
   
4. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
   
   
5. White Noise by Don DeLillo
   
   
6. Anathem by Neal Stephenson
   
   Would like to read in 2015:
   
   
7. The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro
   
   
8. A couple of books for /r/SF_Book_Club
   
   
9. Blindsight and Echopraxia by Peter Watts, back-to-back
   
   
10. At least one or two books on Buddhist philosophy / practice
    
    
11. At least one or two books on philosophy, either philo of mind or more cultural studies / anthro / sociology type stuff.