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 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.

Obligatory wiki links: Dystopian Literature. Although, some of the titles listed don't seem to fit (The Dispossessed?). Nuclear holocaust fiction, and your general apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction.

Some of the better/more popular ones:

• Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang Kate Wilhelm.
  
  
• Eternity Road Jack McDevitt. Well written, but not very insightful.
  
  
• The Postman David Brin.
  
  
• Mockingbird Walter Tevis. Great read. Think Idiocracy, with a serious take. Humanity's totally run by robots, everyone's forgotten how to read and think for themselves, and the world population's dropped to almost nothing.
  
  
• We Yevgeny Zamyatin. The inspiration for George Orwell's 1984. Not the best read IMO, but some people claim it's better than 1984. It's possible I read a poor translation.
  
  
• Island Aldous Huxley. It's a utopian island surrounded by a dystopian world. Might not fit in this list, but it's a good read if you like Huxley. I think it was his last novel.
  
  
• 1984 George Orwell. One of my favorite novels. I have a bumper sticker with the quote "War is Peace, Ignorance is Strength, Freedom is Slavery", which is a slogan from the book. (Also, a sticker on my mirror with "Under the spreading chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me"). The link points to Animal Farm and 1984.
  
  
• Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury. Another must read. Very well written, thought-provoking novel. Is it still required reading in schools?
  
  
• Earth Abides George Stewart.
  
  
• Alas, Babylon Pat Frank. Lucifer's Hammer Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle. I'm grouping these two together because they're very similar, both in setting and politics. I didn't really enjoy either. The politics were not at all subtle, and the characters fit too neatly into stereotypes, and too obviously the writer's hero fantasy. Still, they're pretty popular, so try them out and feel free to disagree with me.
  
  
• Brave New World Aldous Huxley. Really just a utopia that's rough around the edges, if I'm remembering it correctly (also called an anti-utopia, thank you wikipedia). Another must read.
  
  
• A Canticle for Leibowitz Walter Miller.
  
  
• Memoirs Found in a Bathtub Stanislaw Lem. Another favorite. I once created a text adventure based on this book. It was about as frustrating as that Hitchhiker's Guide game.
  
  
• The Road Cormac McCarthy.
  
  
• Philip K. Dick It's hard to keep track of PKD's novels, but some of them are dystopian, all of them worth reading. Favorites: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (also known as/inspired Blade Runner), Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, The Man in the High Castle.
  
  
• The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake Margaret Atwood.
  
  
• Y: The Last Man A graphical novel/comic collection. Decent art, great story.
  
  Zombies: World War Z, Raise the Dead, Marvel Zombies, Zombie Survival Guide, Day By Day Armageddon, I Am Legend.
  
  Also, just for kicks, some of my favorite dystopian movies:
  Brazil, Soylent Green, 12 Monkeys, Blade Runner, Akira, Children of Men, Dark City, A Boy and His Dog, Logan's Run, Idiocracy, Equillibrium.

If you enjoyed Kafka's Metamorphosis, I would strongly recommend reading more of him. Pick up the Trial, the best translation is the breon mitchell one.

Also, pick up a collection of his complete stories.

I bit on the longer side, but if you are looking into getting into "higher" literature with long term thinking themes, I would definitely recommend Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. Classic look into the title themes with very interesting characters and plot, something many books don't have. Definitely a dark theme. The whole angel on one shoulder, demon on the other is extremely apparent and pertinent to this novel. Definitely a great entrance to one of the greatest Russian authors.

A fourth recommendation since you are looking for darker themes is Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry. This is my fourth recommendation and not my first because it is very dependent on style and a bit difficult if the reader isn't used to modernist styling like stream of consciousness. At heart though, it is definitely an absolutely beautiful use of English language to describe a man's descent into chaos.

If you are looking for a general list for "best books", I highly recommend this one. Many tend to be darker on this list. I have read about 70ish books on there and I have always been delighted minus one or two books. The good thing about that list is that it includes a lot of classics, but isn't simply english centric, so you will find authors like Pessoa or Svevo which are not extremely popular in English countries, but are absolutely stunning. This doesn't necessarily answer your dark themed book recommendation, but it perhaps could be useful to yourself later.

I hope you enjoy your reading!

You might like some of the following for your summer book adventures:

The Lies of Locke Lamora - if you like this one, then there's a second book in the series. I think it's shaping up to be a trilogy, but I can't recall off the top of my head. It's low fantasy, clever and occasionally snarky, with some fun intrigue and good action. It keeps up a decent pace, which is great.

If you enjoy magic realism at all, I really liked The Hummingbird's Daughter, which is about a young woman who becomes a saint. I found it to be really fascinating. It doesn't exactly qualify as magic realism, but it's fairly fantastical so you can't read it as realistic either.

The Passage was an interesting read, although I didn't finish it before I had to return it to the library, so the ending might suck :P It was a really neat blend of vampire mythology, science, and the apocalypse though, and I did make it about halfway through before I had to return it.

Finally, Ready Player One was a really neat sort of blend of space opera and adventure quest, with some good nostalgia thrown in for fun. Everyone basically lives in OASIS, which is a virtual reality sort of place, because the world is ugly and gross. This kid is taking part in a contest that everyone in the whole world takes part in, and it follows his progress. I thought it was really neat, anyway.

I'm going to ponder a bit more, and see if anything else strikes my fancy as something you might like. I love recommending books to people :)

How to Build™ : Down Here Buddy(Fighter- Dual Dex Dynamo)

Objective

A dual weilding halfling using a quick wit and even faster blades.

__

Stout Halfling +2 Dex, +1 Con

• Lucky When you roll a 1 on an attack, ability check, or saving throw, you may re roll that dice, but must use the new result.
  
• Brave Advantage vs saving throws to be frightened
  
• Halfling Nimbleness You may move through the space of any creature that is of a size larger than yours.
  
• Stout Resilience You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and have resistance against poison damage.
  
  Background: Criminal
  
  
• You are the muscle behind The Cartel. Your quickness to drive home messages with great efficiency caught the eye of Those Who Be when one of their trainees didn't heed your "Scram" warning. Two blades slicing off his hand and ear proved to Those Who Be that they didn't lose a cutpurse but had gained a new Messenger.
  
  
• Criminal Contact You have a reliable and trustworthy contact who acts as your liaison to a network of other criminals. You know how to get messages to and from your contact, even over great distances; specifically, you know the local messengers, corrupt caravan masters, and seedy sailors who can deliver messages for you.
  
  
• Proficient in Deception, Stealth, Dice, Thieves' Tools
  
  
• Trained in Athletics (life among the streets where might is right), Intimidation ("Use: Stare" ).
  
  
  Equipment based off Suggested Quick Build
  
  
• Two Shortswords
  
• Hand Crossbow + 20bolt quiver
  
• Dungeoneer's Pack
  
• Crowbar & Thieves Tools
  
• Leather Armor, and 210gp
  
  Stats based off Legal Adventure League Array 15,14,13,12,10,8
  
  Stat | | Stat |
  ---|---|----|----
  Str | 10 | Int | 13
  Dex| 14+2 | Wis | 12
  Con | 15+1 | Cha | 8
  
  AC 14 (7 more AC possible with higher quality gear)
  
  HP 13 (9 hp/level afterwards)
  
  
  Level | Class | Gain|Note
  ---|---|-----|----
  1| Fighter | Fighting Style: Two-Weapon Fighting, Second Wind | With every slash you are able to get the needed leverage to drive home the blade.
  2| Fighter | Action Surge | Sometimes you just need to do some extra convincing to drive home your point.
  3| Fighter | Champion: Critical Strike 19-20 | Every strike digs closer to the threats.
  4| Fighter | Feat: Dual Wielder | Your blades move so fast that you can even use them to deflect incoming blows, as well as you have built up strength to wield larger weapon with equal speed (Rapier- 1d8).
  5| Fighter | Extra Attack I | Bring the pain.
  6| Fighter | +2 Dex | Your blows hit harder and your feet move faster.
  7| Fighter | Champion: Remarkable Athelete | Add half your proficiency bonus (round up) to any Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution check you make that doesn't already use your proficiency bonus.
  8| Fighter | Feat: Resilient Dexterity | Float like a butterfly, sting like bee.
  9| Fighter | Indomitable I| You are able to shrug off attacks and difficulties that those with a smaller heart would crumple to.
  10| Fighter | Champion: Fighting Style Defensive | You are able to leverage your armor so that it deflects blows in unexpected ways.
  
  This gets you pretty far progression wise, more beyond this and it can just get too complex as far as flexibility of a guide goes.
  
  Post level 10 I would suggest Feat: Durable, +1 Dex, +1 Con, +2 Con, and even Magic Initiate: Cleric to pick up the spell Shield of Faith or Bless and then Spare the Dying, and Thuamaturgy. These spells augment your team helping their attacks and saves, lets you instantly stop a bleed out, have great RP moments, and are not reliant on having a high wisdom. Also it could work well as your level 19 Feat as you're being blessed by the God of Theives with greater power.
  

Hm, here are some recommendations of my favorite Dark/Gritty Fantasies that immediately come to mind:

Joe Abercrombie is one of my favorite new authors, his books are incredibly gritty dark and original, but the characters are simply amazing. The best starting place is The Blade Itself, but you can read his two other books that aren't part of the trilogy and can be read without losing too much, though they are in the same world and there's more to like about it if you already read the First Law Trilogy. Out of his two stand alone books I'd recommend Best Served Cold which is a Fantasy revenge story in the vain of Kill Bill.

One really good book I read recently is Daniel Polansky's Low Town which is a really cool gritty noir fantasy novel. Where the main character is a former detective for a Fantasy city, but at the beginning of the book he's a drug dealer. Then when murders start to occur, he gets drawn back into the politics of the city, resulting in a great story and multiple plot twists and revelations.

One of my favorites books I've read recently has to be Brent Week's Black Prism. It has some really unique world building, where the magic powers are based on light/colors, and the different magic users have different really unique powers based on their color wavelength. His previous work, the Night Angel Trilogy is also great and it's a little more gritty, with the main character being an assassin.

Next I'll go a little indie here, with the author Jon Sprunk's Shadow's Sun. It features an assassin with slight magical powers and the conscience of a beautiful invisible woman (a real imaginary friend) that is always following him around. There's a lot of things to like in this book, even if they are a little shallow.

Two books from different authors (both of which I really loved) that have kind of similar settings featuring thieves running amok in the underbellies of fantasy cities with a decent amount of grit (without being too dark) are The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch and Doug Hulick's Among Thieves.

There's also Ari Marmell's [The Conqueror's Shadow] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Conquerors-Shadow-Ari-Marmell/dp/0553593153/ref=la_B001JSDH98_1_20?ie=UTF8&qid=1340785404&sr=1-20), the main character is a former evil warlord who gave it all up to live a mundane life with a woman he kidnapped. He then has to put back on his fear inducing armor, when someone else is out in the world impersonating him. There is no evil force in this book, and there's a lot of interesting stuff here, the guy actually has a demonic amulet as a partner that provides him with magical abilities, and the demon is hilarious.

The next series isn't too gritty but it's awesome, so I'd still recommend the author Michael Sullivan, a DIY author that was so successful Orbit picked up his 6 book series to release as three larger books (he's also done some great AMA's on Reddit), the first of which is Theft of Swords. The characters in his book are absolutely superb. It's about these two master thieves that are brought into the conspiracy that they wanted no part of, but will see it to the end no matter what the cost.

Robin Hobb technically isn't real gritty, but she is one of my favorite authors, and in her books serious and horrible things can happen to the characters at times, but the endings of some of her trilogies are some of my favorite endings I've ever read. You could start with her first book about the bastard son of a king (that can bond with animals) being trained as an assassin, Assassin's Apprentice, or my favorite trilogy of her's set in the same universe but a different continent, Ship of Magic that has some awesome pirate settings, talking ships, and dragons. I also love one of her other trilogies set in a different universe than the rest of her books, Shaman's Crossing, the first book has kind of a Harry Potter-esque academy setting without the magic, and the rest of the trilogy gets into some really interesting stuff that's too weird to attempt to explain.


I think that's all I got, and you wouldn't go wrong reading any of these books, all of the pages I linked to are the book's Amazon page, so you can read further descriptions that I'm sure are better than mine. :)

She probably has all of the books you've mentioned if she really likes them, bookish people usually do... A special edition might be an idea, but I won't be able to help you with that, I go for cheap paperbacks due to money ;)

I'm tempted to recommend "We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin, it's not sci-fi classic per se, but it's a dystopian classic, she would probably like it if she likes Brave New World, but again, she might already have it. Still I'm sure she'd be thrilled to get a thoughtful thank you gift from you, even if she's read it before or even has a copy... Here's a link to that book on amazon, if you want to have a look: amazon link

If she does like classic sci-fi, here are some old-school, hard sci-fi (but it's not all just spaceships and aliens) that she might enjoy and possibly even not have, since a couple of the authors aren't from English speaking countries:

• Stanislaw Lem "Solaris" amazon link
  
• Arkady and Boris Strugatsky "Roadside Picnic" amazon link
  
• Artur C. Clarke "Childhood's End" amazon link
  
• Walter M. Miller Jr. "A Canticle for Leibowitz" amazon link

Ender's Game is seriously so much better than the movie. It's amazing what people will do to ensure the safety of the human race, without fully seeing the whole picture.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski. I was hesitant at first, always seeing it, but never checking it out at the library. It wound up being one of my favorite books to read, it was that good. Story of a mute boy raised on a farm breeding dogs. He can sign, and has pretty good life, as far as things go, until his father dies. He tries to prove his uncle had a hand in the death, but the plan backfires. Hated the ending - not because it was bad, but it was so damn sad.

If you're willing to poke at a series, try Scott Lynch's Gentlemen Bastards series, the first book is The Lies of Locke Lamora. The series centers around Locke and his shenanigans as a Gentleman Bastard - a notorious gang of thieves. They pull off some pretty intense schemes, some with great success, some with spectacular failures. It's a great series, and another set of favorites that I recommend to everyone that'd ask.

Congratulations on the new job, hope it works out well for you! Also, I love that you had such a great turn out for your book drive. My kids know how important it is to read - I actually push my daughter to read a little bit above her grade level. She keeps a reading log for homework, so her teachers are pretty impressed. She did amazingly well on her latest state reading/math test, and her teacher believes it's because of all the reading she does. If you do another drive, I hope it goes just as well.

My favorite SF short story writers (in no special order):

• Philip K. Dick--Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick is a really good collection
  
• James Tiptree Jr aka Alice Sheldon--Her Smoke Rose Up Forever is the best collection IMO, but it is sometimes hard to find (at a reasonable price)
  
• Ray Bradbury--too many volumes to count
  
• J.G. Ballard--The Best Short Stories collection is a nice sampling of his early classic SF. The Complete Stories is a comprehensive collection that includes his later conceptual work.
  
• Kurt Vonnegut--Welcome to the Monkey House has several SF short stories
  
• Jorge Luis Borges--Ficciones is a great short collection, but Collected Fictions is a wonderfully complete collection
  
  EDIT--added Amazon links
  
  EDIT2--Also Gardner Dozois' "The Year's Best Science Fiction" is always ridiculously good. I haven't read this year's collection, but I am sure it's excellent.

I would overwhelmingly recommend a book named _Shoot: Your Guide to Shooting and Competition by Julie Golob. It goes over a lot of basics about pistols vs rifles vs shotguns and gives a good overview of different shooting sports and techniques. It’s available on Kindle, but the real book itself is great quality.

If you’re at all interested in hunting, The Complete Guide to Hunting, Butchering, and Cooking Wild Game_, vols., 1 & 2 by Steven Rinella are a great place to start.

This world of guns is a deep rabbit hole filled with fun activity, technical detail, skill building, nerdiness, history, collectibles, legalities, philosophy and inevitably, politics. You can deep dive into any one of these areas and there are nearly endless resources for all of them. Literally too many to recommend a good single one. But reading everything you can is a must, IMHO. If something is particularly motivating you, more recommendations would be happily given.

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!

Ah man, I wanna go to Burning Man soooo badly...

Hm. Looks like you like books, and I always think that books make the best gifts, so...What about [this] (http://www.amazon.com/Vonnegut-volumes-Rosewater-Welcome-Slaughterhouse/dp/B000BVFV48/ref=sr_1_18?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373428804&sr=1-18&keywords=kurt+vonnegut+collection) It has some of my favorite Vonnegut, although no Breakfast of Champions. Not sure if it's actually cheaper to get the boxed set, but it's an easy way to show all of them at once ;)
Or how about some lighter fare. Terry Pratchett is funny and easy to get into from any book in the series.
Or, I know that people sit around and sing songs sometimes...and that's my favorite part of any get-together! As lots of people know the Beatles, what about this great songbook? It's one of my favorites, and it's got all the chords and lyrics to tons of songs, many that people forget about but still like! (You'll need a good camp guitar to go with it...)(now I'm just thinking of things I brought on my recent camping trip...I just got back so it's fresh in my mind...)

I am addicted to mystery novels so here is what I've found:

Linda Fairstein has the Alexandra Cooper series featuring a female DA that works with detectives to solve mysteries. Cooper is a great character and each book is unique and teaches you a bit about random subjects.

Karin Slaughter is good as well- her Grant County series features a coroner/pediatrician and is good if you enjoy something that is a little...darker.

Kathy Reichs is good as well (her series is the basis of the tv show Bones) but not up to par to the other ones I'm mentioned so far, imo.

A few more to check out: Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta novels are good but have been disappointing in the past few years, the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books by Alexander McCall Smith are a fresh perspective and great and I LOVED Envy by Sandra Brown (but the rest of her stuff is a bit romancy for me).

Hope that helps!

You might be interested in short stories. These are all fiction but really fun reads. Check out the Best Short Stories books, like this one, the 2014 edition. I also really liked Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut, also a book of short stories.

For nonfiction, there's this series, I find easy enough to read and each essay is fairly short. There's one for each year and they're great.

One of the truly marvelous things about Vonnegut's books is that they're all like that.

Just an FYI, Breakfast of Champions is my favorite.

And, if you haven't, you must must must read Slaughterhouse Five. I read once that it arose from his viewing of the devastation caused by the bombing of Dresden. I can't say it's the greatest book written in English in the 20th century, but it's not far from it.

The thing about Vonnegut's writing is that it took incredible skill to make his writing seem so simple. It was Pascal who said that if he'd had more time, his letter would've been shorter. But Vonnegut fully understood that concept. The simplicity of his prose, to people who aren't paying attention, might mask the complexity of the ideas behind it.

See, Vonnegut wasn't writing to be artsy or to speak to some glorified idea of an audience. He was talking to us, generally almost always about who we are and what we're doing to ourselves and the planet.

I realize I'm gushing, and I don't praise many people like this, but he was truly a great great writer. And there are reasons why some books are called great.

I get some book recommendations from book blogs like http://booksandmovies.colvilleblogger.com/ and http://literatureandalens.blogspot.com that I found by browsing around book blogs to find bloggers who also liked some of the books that I've liked in the past. (Now, I read a mix of YA, sf, fiction, "classics," non-fiction, and chick lit, so I would recommend browsing for bloggers who represent your tastes.)

Most of my book recommendations come from friends who used to work with me at the local bookstore. They recommend really weird things, like Bad Monkeys and A Good and Happy Child that I never would have found without them. (Those are both strange books that are not girly and would fall under the umbrella of "fiction" as opposed to "science fiction." I particularly liked Bad Monkeys.)

When you next wish to read sf, please consider reading Lois McMaster Bujold's book The Warrior's Apprentice. Here, you may read it for free on your Kindle: http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/24-CryoburnCD/CryoburnCD/ (It is the first novel in Young Miles)

One of the best literary works I've read recently is Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl. While reading it, I felt like Pessl was setting out to write her Great American Novel. In my opinion, she did about as well as could be expected.

The protagonist is a plucky, wise-beyond-her-years high school girl who forms a bond with one of her (very eccentric) teachers. Something horrible happens, and our heroine suddenly finds herself having to uncover some very well-hidden secrets.

It's best to go in not knowing too much. Pessl's style can be jarring at first, as she crams in literary references on nearly every single page, if not more often. The book is definitely worth your time either way, though. Highly recommended.

Becoming Alien by Rebecca Ore

The Skinner by Neil Asher. Don't know if that's "obscure", but I have not seen reference to it here before.

The First Immortal by James Halperin

Count Geiger's Blues by Michael Bishop. Again, don't know if this is "obscure", but it's really fantastic, as is everything by Mr Bishop.

The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde. Hilarious fantasy kind-of like Wicked in genre.

DragonWorld By Byron Preiss and Michael Reeves. Like The Hobbit, but a larger scaled world, more characters, a bit more complex story-line. 12-15 year olds would love it. I've never met anyone who has read this book.

For a good look at the history of the NFL I recommend America's Game by Michael MacCambridge. It's main focus is on the NFL/AFL merger and the business side of how Pro Football became so popular.

The other book I enjoyed was Leatherheads of the North by Chuck Frederick. It's a book about the early days of the NFL, mainly about the Duluth Kelleys/Eskimos, and how the league almost died a few times during those rough and tumble days of the roaring 20's. It's pretty short but it's a lot of fun to peer back to a time before the NFL had the strength and popularity it enjoys now.

My favorite author, and this is his most fun book even if he has a couple better received books

Bukowski is an amazing author regardless of what succs say.

Great book. Brought the term grok into existence

Really cool graphic novel series

David sedaris is probably the best comedic novelist i've ever read/heard. I recommend audio though because he has great delivery, which is what made him such a popular guest on NPR


selfish gene by dawkins. I know Dawkins is a meme, but this book is actually really good along with a lot of his earlier books.

I would first echo most people here and say Sanderson's anything- Elantris comes to mind as a good recommendation.

When you say in the same calibre, are you talking in terms of story, in terms of being high fiction, in terms of length or in terms of moments that make you go, "ohhh... well DAMN!"

I would recommend a lot of things I saw below, so I'm going to try to not do that any more than I already have. The Conan Chronicles by Robert Howard are fun and a much unappreciated classic of Low Fantasy. Orcs by Stan Nicholls is a great series, somewhere in the middle ground between high and low fantasy, and does an interesting twist on the classical fantasy story. The Gentleman Bastards series is another interesting take, but it is more of an Ocean's 11 in a fantasy world. I only saw one mention, but anything Tolkien is a must read if for nothing else than to pay respect to the godfather. The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks is another good story, and it uses a lot of the ideas Jordan uses in terms of who knows what, why and when to progress the story. Finally, for a more Eastern themed book, Tales of the Otori by Liam Hearn is a good trilogy with a lot of political twists.

EDIT: added a link for Elantris

I am just reading the 'Locke Lamora' series: a gentleman thief in a world with quite mighty magicians but very well balanced.

For those who like a fantastic story I can also recommend Jasper Fforde. In his world the characters of all books have a personal life when nobody reads it at the time (and sometimes even then). Characters in a book that don't have a name are only blurred, also in their personal life ;-)

And of course Niffenegger, "The time traveller's wife'" is excellent.

I was going to suggest the Broken Empire series by Mark Lawrence, but it looks like 2 people already beat me to that. I'll just add that I loved that series. The hero is like Machiavelli's wet dream.

Mark Lawrence's new series -- The Red Queen's War -- also features a hero that's not very heroic.

Fight Club, by Chuck Pahlaniuk also fits. But really, most of Pahlaniuk's work features protagonists so amoral that they're practically nihilistic: Choke, Survivor, Rant: the Oral Biography of Buster Casey, and the (in my opinion) under-rated Lullaby.

I'm also tempted to suggest Home Land, by Sam Lipsyte. But its hero is probably more cynical than amoral. It's about a guy whose high school nickname was Teabag (for probably obvious reasons). His high school reunion is coming up, and he's sending letters to the alumni newsletter. According to his updates -- which for some reason aren't getting published in the newsletter along with everyone's anniversary and birth announcements and stuff -- he's not doing well. The book is hilarious. But it also ends with some form of redemption, so it might not be what you're looking for.

Edit -- I should have also suggested I, Lucifer, by Glen Duncan. I mean, the protagonist is the Devil. He's not really completely amoral, but I think it fits, since he's telling his side of the story.

If you liked 1984 (or Brave New World) you should check out "We". It was the book that inspired both 1984 and Brave New York. It's fantastic and you can see where a lot of elements from both other books got their inspiration.

I'm a huge fan of short stories. 20 pages (give or take) and the story is run from beginning to end.

Here are some superb short story collections -

The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories
By LEO TOLSTOY

http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/179299/the-death-of-ivan-ilyich-and-other-stories-by-leo-tolstoy/9780307388865/

John Steinbeck is a maestro of the short novella. An American master. The Short Novels of John Steinbeck

http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/305862/the-short-novels-of-john-steinbeck-by-john-steinbeck/9780143105770/

Mark Twain did some of his best work in short stories.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/complete-short-stories-of-mark-twain-mark-twain/1100302841

Kurt Vonnegut's collection of short stories Welcome To The Monkey House is one of his best books.

http://www.amazon.com/Welcome-Monkey-House-Kurt-Vonnegut/dp/0385333501

Here is a fine work, not much read in the US these days sadly, but I feel this work will rise again. The Guardian rates it as the 58th greatest literary work of the 20th century. I agree. A much larger undertaking than short stories, John Dos Passos 'USA' trilogy, U.S.A.: The 42nd Parallel / 1919 / The Big Money is a longer term project in understanding how the pieces fit together -

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/27/100-best-novels-john-dos-passos-nineteen-nineteen-1919-usa-trilogy

I enjoyed Special Topics in Calamity Physics a lot. One of the first really well written and clever books I read and appreciated as a teenager. A bunch of hidden events/themes/symbols too, which makes it worth a read twice-over.

I read A Prayer for Own Meany and All Quiet On the Western Front for the same 10th grade English, both of which were great as well.

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.

Oh god I love this question. I've got some fantastic recommendations:

Fantasy Series:

• The Gentleman Bastards Sequence
  

  by Scott Lynch
  Book One: The Lies of Locke Lamora
  
  Simultaneously one of my top 5 favorite fantasy novels, and my favorite Heist story of all time.
  Suspense, Intrigue, Visceral action, and some of the wittiest, best-written dialog I've ever read in fiction make this series simultaneously dark, tense, and hilarious.
  Thank god Lynch was wondering what a swords and sorcery take on Ocean's Eleven would look like, because the thought never occurred to me before this.
  
  

• The Mistborn Trilogy
  

  by Brandon Sanderson
  Get the boxed set. Just do it.
  
  Sanderson is perhaps best known for being chosen to continue the Wheel of Time series after the passing of Robert Jordan; and this is very unfortunate. I would take Mistborn over WoT any day.
  The author's passion seems to be exotic settings, and unique magic systems with a solid set of rules. You get so attuned to what Mistborn's Allomancy can and can't do, that it seems as fundamental as gravity by the end. And speaking of endings, this one is Incredibly well thought out.
  
  -----------------------------
  I've got stuff to do, so I'll cut it off here for now, but seriously, check them out. And Please don't ask me which I'd recommend more, I don't want my head to explode.
  
  More to come, if I'm not too lazy. I'm full of these.

I can't pick one, so here are a smattering:

E.L. Doctorow has yet to write a disappointing book. He writes fiction stories that are heart-wrenching. The one that gets the best response from people I recommend it to is Homer & Langley.

There's a series by Jonathan L. Howard about this necromancer named Johannes Cabal. It's quite good.

Italian Calvino wrote a book called Cosmicomics that I recommend to everyone, even though technically it's sci-fi.

Scott Lynch wrote a series called The Gentleman Bastards, which is part heist (swashbuckling in the second book), part buddy story, part magic/fantasy. Quite good.

Take a look, it's in a book!

There's actually a fantastic book that covers this exact question, along with charting the rise of the NFL from its roots to present day.

America's Game: The epic story of how Pro Football captured a nation.

I highly suggest anyone who hasn't read it before check it out. Not only is it well written, it's full of fantastic behind-the-scenes information on the sport. I read it first as a casual NFL follower and it gave me an unbelievable amount of history and understanding of the game. I re-read it this summer now as a die-hard and knowledgeable fan, and it's just as good.

But again, to the OP's question, this book traces the history of the NFL from a drowning, practically broke league 70+ years ago to our nation's favorite sport.

This genre can be pretty varied depending on what your interested in.

If you want to explore all it has to offer, check out “Brave New Worlds”. Brave New Worlds It’s an anthology of short stories that spans the gamut from dystopian historical fiction to fantasy and hard sci fi.

If you’re looking for a realistic near future dystopian novel, check out the Maddam trilogy by Margaret Atwood. The first book in the trilogy, Oryx and Crake, was one of only a handful of novels that I’ve ever read cover to cover in just one sitting.

If you’re interested in YA dystopian fiction, the Uglies “trilogy” by Scott Westerfield is pretty good. For dystopian post-apocalyptic YA, I’d recommend The 100 series by Kass Morgan.

There’s a ton out there in this genre and it keeps growing. Let us know what you find.

The right has been following the leftish media attack on her. I decided to read one of her books, amazing. I have bought 5 of her books now, all have been great.

Do not trust the media on her, Shes brilliant. Her books are great.

I highly recommend. How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must): The World According to Ann Coulter

Haha, you're absolutely right about the "misery lit" that seems to be so popular, and if you only read the ones I linked above you'd definitely not have much perspective on the millions of Africans who live perfectly ordinary lives. For a much more light-hearted series, I always recommend Alexander McCall Smith's Number One Ladies' Detective Agency and its sequels.

Also, LOL at "South Africa? Brussels?" :)

History

True History of the American Revolution – Sydney George Fisher

Life and Liberty in America – Charles Mackay
Land of the Dollar – George Steevens
Outre-Mer – Paul Bourget

Shall Cromwell Have a Statue? – Charles Francis Adams Jr.
Memoirs of Service Afloat – Adm. Raphael Semmes
The Roving Editor – James Redpath

Democracy and the Party System in the United States – Moisei Ostrogorskiy
A South-Side View of Slavery – Nehemiah Adams

The Origin of the Late War – Lunt

Reflection on the Revolution in France – Edmund Burke
Origins of English Individualism – Alan MacFarlane
The Shortest-Way With The Dissenters – Daniel Defoe

While you Slept – John T. Flynn
The Road Ahead; America’s Creeping Revolution – John T. Flynn
America’s Retreat from Victory – Joseph R. McCarthy

****

Fiction/Poetry

Complete Verse – Rudyard Kipling*
Harrison Bergeron – Kurt Vonnegut*
Camp of the Saints – Jean Raspail
Darkness at Noon – Arthur Koestler

****

Other Related Reading Lists

A reactionary library
The Neoreactionary Canon
Derbyshire’s list of Dark Enlightenment blogs
The Great Books of The Aristocracy
Library of the Dark Enlightenment
Great Books for Men’s reading list
Foseti’s “Books that influenced me”
Moldbug’s Slow History
The Patrician’s Library

How it is written is as important as what it says.


After people read Lolita I always recommend they try reading the annotated version amazon link

If you read the book and liked it the annotations help you appreciate it in a new light and realize all the things you missed. If you read the book and didn't like it they help you understand why it is so well written and why people love it.

"So let me get this right: you have the ability to create whatever you want - gold, jewels, platinum - at any moment, for effectively free -" Jeb paused, then decided to repeat this last bit to emphasize it even more - "effectively free - purely out of the energy from your 'dsyon balls' or whatever they are - and your price of admission is a former American President playing saxophone at the ceremony?"

The reply came back smooth and unconcerned, with the slightest hint of amusement at Jeb's incredulity - the perfect tone to really piss Jeb off. "Yes."

Jeb gripped the handle of his "#1 President" coffee mug until his knuckles went white and the blood pressure alarm started vibrating on his smart watch. "Now listen here, you alien or machine or whatever you are, the American people - and what's more, the people of Earth - are not fools. We know there's no such thing as a free lunch, we've lived and grown up knowing that, it's in our blood, in the blood of our forefathers and our fathers' forefathers, and what's more, we don't tolerate freeloaders. I'm not going to have you sit me through a 5 hour meeting to convince me you're some good Samaritan species so you can make a fool out of me and my country, or worse, enslave us with some fancy clause you forget to mention until the last moment, just to be a world of, of - galactic welfare queens." He slammed his mug on his desk as he spat the last words at his computer screen, splashing cold coffee onto his shirt cuffs.

"And don't think I believe for one minute your baloney about all the Koreans playing WoW being your 'researchers' gathering information on our culture and music because no actual Koreans would play WoW when they have better things in their country - frankly, I find it offensive you'd suggest we'd be foolish enough to believe it and -"

"Jeb, I assure you our intentions -"

"DON'T YOU DARE INTERRUPT ME," boomed Jeb, losing the last bit of patience he had struggled to hold during this ridiculous meeting with this smug, silver, sentient being before him. "I AM THE PRESIDENT OF THE GODDAMN UNITED STATES. AND, AND, and I am NOT, I repeat NOT, going to let you just absorb my country and my planet into your, your, collective or whatever you call it!"

The machine was making a frowny face - pissing Jeb off only more that they would condescend to him so much as to pretend human emotion.

Jeb felt a cool chill run down his back, and decided this discussion was over. "If America and the Earth enters space," he said, voice deadly calm in a manner he had practiced in the oval office mirror for dealing with the Russians, "it will be on America's terms, not yours." The machine mimed slight surprise back at him. "Until then, you'd better leave us the hell alone."

The president cut the connection, and slammed a button on his desk. "Susan, do we still have that supermajority in the Congress?"

"Yes sir, Mister President," came the reply.

"Tell them they're taking the budget out of medicare and slamming it into the defense budget, and pulling out that old Star Wars bill from Reagan and passing it immediately."

"Yes sir, Mister President."

--------------------------

P.S. - If you like this prompt, consider reading Year Zero: a Novel. It's absolutely hilarious, the idea being that humans are about to enter the galactic stage, but so many aliens have pirated human music that the amount of money owed humanity by aliens exceeds the amount of money in the universe. So, the aliens contact a human lawyer, and the following adventure feels very Douglas Adams.

I just finished reading the Gentleman Bastards series, by Scott Lynch:

1. The Lies of Locke Lamora
   
2. Red Seas Under Red Skies
   
3. The Republic of Thieves
   
4. The Thorn of Emberlain (will be released in late september this year).
   
   After reading The Stormlight Archive, and Mistborn, a friend recommended me the Gentleman Bastards saga and I loved it. I'd say I liked it more than mistborn, and equally than The Stormlight Archive. Scott Lynch is also a great author.
   
   I enjoyed reading the Gentleman Bastards saga. The characters are complex, the fantasy lore is rich, not Brandon Sanderson-rich, but rich. The history is great. But I must say that I think Scott Lynch is very descriptive, I found difficult to get through because so much detail was offered.
   
   PS. Maybe we all could share our goodreads.com profiles. Seeing that we have similar tastes, we could see what others are reading.

Read 1984 for the dystopian aspect, for sci-fi pick up Isaac Asimov as mentioned by the_thinker.. And if you want a good, fun and captivating read, pick up Chuck Palahniuk's works, I'm a big fan of those. Try Survivor, Lullaby, Choke, any of those are amazing

Can we not turn this subreddit into /r/TIL. TIL post don't really add much in the way of discussion (especially when it's just linking to Wikipedia articles).

For anyone interested in more NFL history I would highly recommend reading America's Game by Michael MacCambridge. I read it back in high school and it did an excellent job of giving a good overview of the NFL's history (going back to the 1930s I think).

You might really enjoy The Lies of Locke Lamora. It's basically nonstop adventure. Any qualms I had about being sympathetic to a con-man/assassin/thief as a protagonist were quickly put to rest with Scott Lynch's rich portrayal of the beguiling Locke Lamora and his city of Camorr in this novel. The vibrant character navigates a story that superbly connects a coming of age tale with gang facets alongside a swashbuckling Three Musketeers-like adventure sprinkled with magic and humor in appropriate places. With dukes, kings, alchemists, spies, thieves and mafia dons as its inhabitants, the city of Camorr feels real and solid as if existing somewhere in medieval or Renaissance Italy or Spain.

Can't recommend this enough for anyone looking for a damn good book about good "bad guys."

If you're interested in the history of the NFL (and just professional football in general,) I highly recommend America's Game by Michael MacCambridge. While being pretty comprehensive, it is never dry. It's very cool learning about how football went from a sport that no one cared about outside of college to the behemoth that it is today.

There's a series of books set in Botswana about a woman detective by Alexander McCall Smith. The narrator has a gorgeous yet easily understandable accent and does voices for all the characters. The story itself is also really great. The first book is called The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Definitely check it out!

Year Zero: A Novel https://www.amazon.com/dp/0345534514/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_wM9ADbY4HECJR

It's very entertaining, it's about aliens downloading all our music and distributing it thoughout the universe only to learn that or copyright laws don't allow that so they now have to destroy earth to cancel it the debt they owe the music industry. Some want to find a solution, so they solicit the help of an Earth lawyer to help them save the world. This has a lot of clever humor on it, and I would categorize it with Hitchhikers Guide.

I also really love this book. It's more in depth about melee combat, and is a great book. They both are my two favorite zombie guides for sure.

The Humans by: Matt Haig. An interesting story told from the point of view of an alien living among us.

I am now out of new content and re-listening to Year Zero by: Rob Reid. This is a "hitchhikers guide" like book about aliens who LOVE our music! It talks about funny subjects like the 1970s, insane copyright laws, the evils of Microsoft, and Lawyers. It is entertaining enough to keep me happy on the commute to work.

We - by Yevgeny Zamyatin

>First published in the Soviet 1920s, Zamyatin's dystopic novel left an indelible watermark on 20th-century culture, from Orwell's 1984 to Terry Gilliam's movie Brazil. Randall's exciting new translation strips away the Cold War connotations and makes us conscious of Zamyatin's other influences, from Dostoyevski to German expressionism. D-503 is a loyal "cipher" of the totalitarian One State, literally walled in by glass; he is a mathematician happily building the world's first rocket, but his life is changed by meeting I-330, a woman with "sharp teeth" who keeps emerging out of a sudden vampirish dusk to smile wickedly on the poor narrator and drive him wild with desire. (When she first forces him to drink alcohol, the mind leaps to Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel.) In becoming a slave to love, D-503 becomes, briefly, a free man.

Amazon

Have you read Jasper Fforde? If you like Douglas Adams, you'll love him. He's got a few series, including the Thursday Next series that starts with The Eyre Affair. Or if you want something slightly less lighthearted, there's Shades of Grey.

For some reason, I'm a total Jasper Fforde evangelical lately, but he's fantastic.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Annotated-Lolita-Revised-Updated/dp/0679727299

This is the copy that was given to me as a gift, and I thought it was great. Loved having the translations readily available while reading.

A Song of Ice and Fire is a great series, One of my personal favorite and I would say you probably can't go wrong with it.

However, the series I would recommend (if you haven't already read it) is the Gentleman Bastard series by Scott Lynch. I just finished the first book and I'll say it is possibly my favorite fantasy book.

In the mean time, I'd very highly recommended The Annotated Lolita edited by Appel. The man got some of his notes okayed by the author, himself! And his notes, dense and tiny-fonted though they are, make for great reading, chock-full of useful tangential notes as well as dazzling insights.

It's a strong contender for best-written novel of the 20th century.

(Not like that would be an important consideration or anything. :-) )

Unless you're extremely literate, you must get the annotated edition which explains the ten or so jokes and references on every page.

- http://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Lolita-Revised-Updated/dp/0679727299 -

Books

• Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks. A great read that will forever fuel zombie conversations in the future.
  
• World War Z by Max Brooks. A well done recount of the zombie war that nearly wiped humans off the planet.
  
• Day By Day Armageddon by J. L. Bourne. A compelling diary-style account from the beginning of a zombie apocalypse.
  
• Beyond Exile by J. L. Bourne. A sequel that picks up right where Day By Day left off.
  
• The Zombie Combat Manual by Roger Ma. Meh. Just a cash-in on Max Brooks' great work with the survival guide.
  
• U.S. Army Zombie Combat Skills by 'Dept. of the Army'. Lame. About as fun to read as a roll of toilet paper.

if you like this book, i HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend reading We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin. It predates Nineteen Eighty-Four (written in 1921) and is said to have influenced it, along with Brave New World and many others.

What do you want to learn and/or practice?

• Do you want to practice your pistol marksmanship fundamentals, and shoot increasingly smaller groups and increasingly longer ranges?
  
  
• Do you want to practice shooting non-standard shooting positions (ie left-hand only, right-hand only, kneeling, prone, target to the side, around barricades/walls)?
  
  
• Do you want to work on malfunction clearances? Rapid follow-up shots? Shooting and moving, or shooting on the move?
  
  Without a specified goal, I would suggest a skills progression as described in the Pistol Skills series of classes (local OK instructor), or a beginning-to-advanced skills progression described in a learn-to-shoot book like Shoot by Julie Golob or Jake Maloney's Guide. Learn and practice (and master) the basic skills.
  
  Dropping in at the range on a random weekday afternoon, you chances are hit-or-miss of having an available unscheduled instructor available. One side of the coin is that you're only looking for instruction & feedback on pistol fundamentals (flip side says that there may not be folks on staff, at that time, with the appropriate knowledge/experience/disposition to provide even basic instruction). If there is an instructor available, work ahead on your list of skills to learn. If there is no instructor available, conduct focused practice on the skills you have already learned/been taught.
  
  Useful links:
  
  
• Video: Front Sight Focus
  
  
• PDF: Drills for the Public Range

I can vouch for Roger. He's a good guy, and he wrote the very entertaining Zombie Combat Manual. We've had some entertaining writer to writer talks, and he is definitely passionate about the sport.

Check out his book here: http://www.amazon.com/The-Zombie-Combat-Manual-Fighting/dp/0425232549

Edit: OP is not the Roger Ma that I thought he was. Disregard.

I have not read this series (Yet. It is sitting on my Kindle to read next) but I have heard very good things about 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' by Scott Lynch (I actually think it is more thieves but not 100%)

Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder is a pretty nice read but again she is magic-y.

Little OT for /r/Fantasy but does anyone know of any 'Modern Assassins' books. There seems to be a slew of Fantasy stories of children being brought up as Assassins but I have not really had any luck finding any set modern day.

I have bottles of:

• A small (4%) stout
  
• A British brown ale (an attempt at creating Verrari Dark, as described in Lies of Locke Lamora)
  
• Imperial IPA
  
• Dubbel
  
• P-lambic
  
• Kriek
  
• Oud Bruin
  
• Winter warmer with peated malt
  
• Rye imperial stout
  
• Sour cherry saison
  
  Hmmm... Maybe I need to have some friends over soon :-)

Death of an Irish Lass

I read this at my MIL's house in a fit of extreme boredom, it was pretty good. There are a whole bunch of them.

Also, Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency was fun.

This is one of the most entertaining and funniest books I've read: http://www.amazon.com/Venus-Half-Shell-Kilgore-Trout/dp/0899683061/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347328073&sr=1-1&keywords=venus+on+the+half+shell+kilgore+trout I'd also recommend: http://www.amazon.com/Breakfast-Champions-Novel-Kurt-Vonnegut/dp/0385334206/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347328142&sr=1-1&keywords=breakfast+of+champions+by+kurt+vonnegut

The Lies of Locke Lamora

Excellent world. Adventure, twists, character growth. This is the first of a series and they are all great.

This is the translation that finally "broke" The Trial for me. Prior to that, I had a love/hate relationship with Kafka. After reading Mitchell's translation, it's tilted heavily in favor of love. Schocken has a good paperback edition here.

I will second The Lies of Locke Lamora (part of the Gentleman Bastard series) as an excellent choice.

If you like Percy Jackson because it is fantasy mixed with the real world (i.e. urban fantasy genre) you might like The Dresden Files or the Iron Druid Chronicles

You might also look at branching into historical fiction, maybe? There are a lot of books using real historical military campaigns as backgrounds that are very entertaining - if that is of any interest to you, start with The Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield.

How about trying annotated version of the books you want to read, if they're available?

http://www.amazon.com/kindle-store/dp/B00C7CFFZO

I know this isn't what you're asking for exactly, but they were hugely helpful when I found myself out of my depth with some books I wanted to read.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Annotated-Lolita-Revised-Updated/dp/0679727299

I actually have this particular annotated Lolita edition. It's quite good.

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.

When the NFL first started broadcasting games on TV, circa 1949-1950 in Los Angeles for the Rams, they immediately saw a HUGE decrease in attendance. Back then, attendance and ticket sales were (by a very wide margin) their largest source of revenue. If it hadn't been for a sneaky deal that Dan Reeves had signed with the TV conglomerate that was doing the broadcasting (which saw him compensated for attendance drops greater than about 10%, IIRC), the Rams would have seen insurmountable monetary losses that first TV season.

Nowadays, the revenue model is based on TV contracts, so the rules are a bit outdated.

EDIT: this book has a pretty good couple of sections about the early TV experiments the NFL did. The wikipedia page on the blackout rules also has some info.

Jasper Fforde is awesome - I never quite got into the Thursday Next series, but I loved The Fourth Bear, couldn't get enough!

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch is a fantastic book, and if you enjoy it there are two other books currently out, and (four?) more to come!

It's really hard for me to only recommend one book right now, normally when I recommend books I give people huge lists that scare them. :P Bookworms rule!

I have a Books/Movies wishlist, and I'm 100% fine with a used copy.

I'm pretty awesomely adept at Greek mythology and literature.

Some of my favorite literature:

[Waiting for Godot] (http://www.amazon.com/Waiting-Godot-Eng-rev-Tragicomedy/dp/080214442X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368735525&sr=1-1&keywords=waiting+for+godot) by Samuel Beckett

[The Stranger] (http://www.amazon.com/Stranger-Albert-Camus/dp/0679720200/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368735498&sr=1-1&keywords=the+stranger+by+albert+camus) by Albert Camus

[Shades of Grey] (http://www.amazon.com/Shades-Grey-Novel-Jasper-Fforde/dp/0143118587) by Jasper Fforde

[The Diamond as Big as the Ritz] (http://www.amazon.com/Diamond-Big-Ritz-Scott-Fitzgerald/dp/1603551050/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368735594&sr=1-2&keywords=diamond+as+big+as+the+ritz) by F. Scott Fitzgerald

This reminds me heavily of the novel Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde. That book (which has nothing to do with a certain other novel with a similar name) depicts a society of humans (not crayons) who each have limited color vision, and which colors you can see is passed on from your parents. There is strong taboo there about complementary colors interbreeding, and given the nature of the government, it would be unsurprising if the children of such miscegenation were...disappeared.

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin is right up your alley. It's very dark, dystopian, and has sci-fi elements. This book came out in the 1920's, WAY before 1984 or Brave New World. It is difficult at some points but really challenges you and it made me question a lot of things about myself. Good luck getting out of the slump, I am in one myself

I recommend Jasper Fforde's The Fourth Bear. His books revolve around a police officer who works in the Nursery Crime Division. One of the first scenes in this particular book is a sting operation to bring this horrible guy down. It's a great read- one of the smartest satires of one of the silliest subjects I can think of.

It's not boring but it's about pretty everyday stuff, and the way it's written might be what you're looking for. I found it very soothing in a way.

https://www.amazon.com/No-Ladies-Detective-Agency-Book/dp/1400034779

Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff. Not his best work, but it fits your description. It's a pretty quick read too, which might be a welcome attribute in a book club book.

Colin Cotterill has 2 interesting series set in SEAsia. The more lighthearted of the 2 is set in Thailand, starts with Killed at the Whim of a Hat and features an unusual young woman and her unusual family. The other series features an elderly doctor in Communist Laos, and begins with The Coroner's Lunch.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, set in Botswana, is reliably charming.

I am Pilgrim, debut by Terry Hayes, is an international thriller featuring a young, retired spy. It's noteworthy because Hayes is a master of pacing.

It's usually the first one suggested:
-"The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss (Kingkiller Chronicles)

Whilst different in terms of scope and story, the world building is on par with ASOIAF. I was a little skeptic, being in the same position as you are in, when I picked it up, but now I'm anxiously awaiting both Winds of Winter and the third book in the Kingkiller Chronicles.


I've also started Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (Gentleman Bastards series). So far I'm enjoying it A LOT. I do love having an anti-hero protagonist, and the world so far is pretty engrossing. But I can't officially recommend as I'm not even half way through.

I'll post links so you can get an idea of what they're about. Apologies, I'm a bit tired, otherwise I would give you a rough synopsis myself

If you're looking for some good fantasy books I'd highly recommend the following:
1.) The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss - http://www.amazon.com/Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicle/dp/0756404746

2.) Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence - http://www.amazon.com/Prince-Thorns-Broken-Empire-Lawrence/dp/1937007685

3.) Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson - http://www.amazon.com/Gardens-Moon-Malazan-Book-Fallen/dp/0765348780/ref=pd_sim_14_12?ie=UTF8&dpID=51pDraZRUIL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR99%2C160_&refRID=1H0ZZ7MYMYZGKGQMEKTW

This next one has some fantasy elements, however, it's hard to pigeonhole into an exact genre (low fantasy adventure?), nonetheless, it's one of the better books that I've read recently.

4.) The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastards) by Scott Lynch
http://www.amazon.com/Lies-Locke-Lamora-Gentleman-Bastards/dp/055358894X/ref=pd_sim_14_5?ie=UTF8&dpID=51tpIK8K%2BtL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR98%2C160_&refRID=1H0ZZ7MYMYZGKGQMEKTW

5.) The Way of Shadows: The Night Angel Trilogy: Book 1 by Brent Weeks -
http://www.amazon.com/Way-Shadows-Night-Angel-Trilogy/dp/0316033677/ref=pd_sim_14_4?ie=UTF8&dpID=51tPZPp5dsL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR93%2C160_&refRID=1WERAT21ARWMVZN12V2P

(All books mentioned are the 1st novel of a larger series. If you're already aware and/or read these already than disregard, trying to pass along some great books for anyone who might come across my post)

Comments in this thread reminded me about this game. I played it a while ago, after reading Jennifer Government, which I thought was a fun little capitalist dystopia. In this game, you are presented with scenarios where you get to describe what you'd like to sign into law, based on scenarios that your legislature has presented. You can interact with other "governments" if you like, or just see what kind of world your views would land you in.

It's not a game for those who want speedy answers. It'll pose situations over time.

Amazon recommended a book to me when I bought RPO off their site. It's called "Year Zero", and while it's not QUITE as engaging as Cline's writing it's a pretty fun premise.

My personal favourites are;

• The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon sanderson; A fantastic trilogy with interesting characters, set in a world where the 'bad guy' won, it features some amazing plot twists and great character development as well as an interesting magic system.
  
  
  
• Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss; Quite possibly my favourite fantasy book, focuses on an individual character called Kvothe and his time at University whilst trying to uncover the reason for his parents death.
  
  
• Lies of Locke lamora by Scott lynch; I would regard this as low fantasy, similar to Game of Thrones - it revolves around a group of thieves and their exploits - what makes this interesting is that the main character, Locke isn't special at all - he's small of stature, weak but he's incredibly cunning. Imagine Ocean's Eleven set in a fantasy version of renaissance Venice.
  
  
• The First law series by Joe Abercrombie - this series is full of interesting characters, painted in shades of grey; there are no 'good' or 'bad' characters, each one has their own flaws. A great read which makes the characters of other books pale in comparison.
  
  
  
  Links to the aforementioned books;
  
  
• mistborn trilogy http://www.amazon.com/Mistborn-Trilogy-Boxed-Hero-Ascension/dp/076536543X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371035188&sr=8-1&keywords=mistborn+trilogy
  
  
• Name of the wind http://www.amazon.com/Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicles-Day/dp/0756405890/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371035226&sr=1-1&keywords=name+of+the+wind
  
  
• Lies of Locke Lamora http://www.amazon.com/Lies-Locke-Lamora-Scott-Lynch/dp/055358894X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371035255&sr=1-1&keywords=lies+of+locke+lamora
  
  
• The first law trilogy http://www.amazon.com/First-Law-Trilogy-Boxed-Set/dp/0575092963/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371035287&sr=1-2&keywords=first+law+trilogy

I would recommend:

Patrick Rothfuss's Name of the Wind


Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series, or his newest series The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive).

If you made it all the way through Sword of Truth series, you probably will enjoy Jordan's Wheel of Time.

Scott Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora is also very enjoyable.

If you are looking for another big one, enjoy the gritty and dark elements from Martin, Stephen Erikson's Malazan series might be up your alley. The first book is a little difficult to get through, but it picks up after that.

Year Zero. If you like absurd comedic writing the likes of Douglas Adams, this is for you.

This collection of short stories is worth reading. Pretty much every world presented would make a good episode of Black Mirror.

Year Zero: A Novel, by Rob Reid. I particularly recommend listening to the unabridged audio book read by John Hodgman. He's an excellent reader, with great comic timing.

I really, REALLY want to know what the books were.

Perhaps gems like [this] (https://www.amazon.com/9-11-Descent-into-Tyranny-Orders/dp/1575581132/ref=la_B001K8I8FU_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520297172&sr=1-1) or [this] (https://www.amazon.com/How-Talk-Liberal-You-Must/dp/1400054192) ?

I am not even sure I could come up with a book that I can look at and be like "Yup, this person is a crazy man" besides stuff like Alex Jones and his ilk.

A good book to read afterwards is 'Jennifer Government', which takes the opposing POV - the hero is living in a Anarcho-Capitalist dystopia, and works for the government.

http://www.amazon.com/Jennifer-Government-Max-Barry/dp/1400030927

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1250

http://www.amazon.com/The-Trial-Translation-Based-Restored/dp/0805209999/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1375019502&sr=8-6&keywords=The+Trial

I had to read The Trial a few semesters ago for one of my classes and this is the version we used. I would be more than happy to send you it if you would like just send me a PM.

I remember being in 2nd grade in 1988, when Rush Limbaugh was taking over radio. That's when I first learned from my 8 year old best friend that liberals were idiots who were ruining the world.

That's why we're condescending now. They've been fanatics for decades. Condescension is nothing compared to the venom and bile they've been spewing as a lifestyle. It's apples to atoms.

Try something different, here are a few suggestions:

• Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith
  
• Redshirts by John Scalzi
  
• Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge
  
• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
  
• Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk

Tough to pick a favorite, but The Lies of Locke Lamora is a pretty good example.

Actually, the lady that the article is about wrote a decent book named Shoot: Your Guide to Shooting and Competition, that is a pretty good overview.
She divides the categories up as:

• NRA Precision Sports (service rifle, f-class, etc)
  
• Olympic Shooting Sports
  
• Shotgun Sports (trap, 5-stand, etc)
  
• Handgun Action Shooting Sports
  
• Multi-Gun (3-gun, practical shooting)
  
• Nostalgia Shooting Sports (SASS)
  The examples are my own, but the categories come from her book. It's a good high-level overview.

You guys & gals should check out this book The premise is pretty funny. So is the book itself.

I agree with the short story idea. It takes a long time to narrate well. There are a lot of tips for doing this over at LibriVox.

As for a book suggestion, maybe look at some of Vonnegut's short stories. Like those in Welcome to the Monkey House.

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray

Humor, Pathos, Metaphysics and the citadel that's junior high (or secondary school)

Another:

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marissa Pessl

Evocative of Skippy in a lot of ways - leans more toward the female reader - which might appeal to your lady

Both fantastic books

I just started reading The Lies of Locke Lamora today, and so far (~60 pages in) I am really enjoying it! I'm also reading Libra for a literature class, and I am enjoying that a lot less.

I'd also recommend We. Both Brave New World and 1984 were influenced heavily by it

bad monkey - by Matt Ruff the plot is quite close from what you've described. Go read it the book is quite interesting, you never know if you have chars being schizophrenics or just really into their stuff.
good read.

Annnnd here we go again. I'm doing this with all books, just because.

Allegiant

Berenstain Bears

Calvin and Hobbes

Dune

Edgar Allen Poe collection

Fahrenheit 451

Gulliver's Travels

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie

Julie of the Wolves

Kite Runner

Little House on the Prairie

Machine of Death

Neverending Story

Omnitopia Dawn (The book I'm reading now, actually!)

Pilgrim's Progress

Quarter Share (Also available free as a podiobook!)

Room

Snow Crash

[Tell-Tale Brain](http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_9?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=tell-tale brain&sprefix=tell-tale%2Cstripbooks%2C222&rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3Atell-tale brain&ajr=2)

Uglies

Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Watership Down

Xenocide

Year Zero

Zen and the Art of Knitting

This is the version of Lolita that I have and it made it very simple to read. Dont understand a passage, flip to the back and now you do. It honestly made helped this book become one of my favorites.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Annotated-Lolita-Revised-Updated/dp/0679727299

America's Game by Michael MacCambridge is a tremendously detailed chronology of the NFL. I believe it starts with the 1958 championship game and continues to present day. I highly recommend it.

read this book Jennifer Government over a decade ago that fictionally covers this scenario. very good read and would recommend.

Some collections I read recently:

Wasteland

Brave New Worlds

Robot Uprisings

I also read a few other stories that really stood out. Second Variety by P.K. Dick, The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster. It isn't quite a short story, but The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson was also great and could be read as a collection of stories connected to each other.

From Russia, I would add Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, it arguably was the first of the modern dystopia novels and clearly inspired 1984. Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind and Harper Lee's Too Kill a Mockingbird are widely regarded as the essential southern literature. From France, I would read Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. It's really a book like non-other and you really haven't read the best until you're attempted it (make sure you find a good translation!).

I recently re-read The Trial, and I adored Breon Mitchell's translation, which is "Based On The Restored Text," meaning it contains passages the previous versions did not.

The translation is very contemporary. I found it remarkably easy (and fun!) to read.

The publisher, Schocken, also put out versions of The Castle, Amerika, and The Complete Stories (which would obviously include The Metamorphosis, A Hunger Artist, In the Penal Colony, and my personal favorite Kafka story, A Report to an Academy), but their translations were not done by Mitchell and I have not read them, so I can't comment on that.

How about The Trial by Franz Kafka

I don't have any particular reason for recommending this, but it fits your criteria and I dig Kafka.

If you decide to go with The Trial, I read this translation and enjoyed it greatly.

I love dystpians. When you finish that one up, try Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde

Thanks! I'll check these out... and maybe I'll reread the Dark Tower series, so friggin' great.

<>

Edit:

Amazon links:

The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley


Abundance Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler


Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker

Stephen King's Dark Tower Series

Patrick Rothfuss's Name of the Wind (Kingkiller Chronicles)

Scott Lynch's Gentlemen Bastards series

(yeah, these are smile.amazon.com links... if you aren't already supporting some organization with your Amazon purchases, how about my kid's school's PTA?)

You laugh, but theres actually a novel about that.
http://www.amazon.com/Year-Zero-Novel-Rob-Reid/dp/0345534514

Well, all the usual discussion aside, I really liked Welcome To The Monkey House when I was younger. Time for a re-read.

Did a quick Google search and found this on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Trial-Translation-Based-Restored/dp/0805209999/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1407778965&sr=1-4

I've seen them at every Barnes & Noble I've went to as well.

This is an awesome short story collection: https://www.amazon.com/Brave-New-Worlds-Dystopian-Stories/dp/1597804541

The Zombie Combat Manual

Dead of Night

The First Days

LOVE zombies. :D

You've already got the answer, but I liked the following two books as touching on some similar kind of dystopian themes:

David Suski, The Wired Man. Life is dominated by your social media score.

https://www.amazon.com/Wired-Man-David-Adam-Suski/dp/0615964788

Max Barry. Jennifer Government. People and countries are owned by corporations.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1400030927/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485760706&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=jennifer+government&dpPl=1&dpID=41QC2KGBDVL&ref=plSrch

A whole book was written on this premise. Jennifer Government by Max Berry, the creator of NationStates, which was kind of a thing in 2004 or so. The book is excellent. You should read it.

There is a fantastic book about this very subject - https://www.amazon.com/Year-Zero-Novel-Rob-Reid/dp/0345534514

Here's a fantastic book that covers this situation.

https://www.amazon.com/Jennifer-Government-Max-Barry/dp/1400030927

In all honesty, the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings are pretty tough to get into, since they are practically the ur-examples of fantasy, written back when a lot of commercial fiction methodology was still being developed.

When i read a book, I worry first and foremost if I'm entertained, if I am, I'll give it my recommendation, regardless of the flaws. These are the ones I think you'd find best for jumping in with.

YA/Middle Grade Books

• The Maze Runner Trilogy by James Dashner (post-apocalypse)
  
  
• Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan (modern kid finds he's the son of Poseidon)
  
  
• Leviathan/Behemoth/Goliath by Scott Westerfeld] (World war 1 with mechs and genetically engineered animals)
  
  
• Eragon by Christopher Paolini (a kid finds a dragon egg and fights the big bad guy. As a warning, it uses the exact same monomyth structure as Star Wars so the similarities are... apt.)
  
  
  Fantasy
  
  
• Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson (a gang of thieves try to rob the evil overlord)
  
  
• Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin (a brutal war between about a half different factions over who gets the crown. Gets really complex fast so it might not be a great one to start with.)
  
  
• Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (I always say it's Oceans 11 written in the Game of Thrones world)
  Discworld by Terry Pratchet (I'd recommend not starting at the beginning.)
  
  
  Sci-Fi
  
  
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (it's Ender's Game. You must read this)
  
  
• Old Man's War by John Scalzi (Not sure how to pitch this. It's space marines fighting everyone)
  
  
• The Sector General Series by James White (It's like House, but in space with aliens. Not without flaws but very underrated in my view)
  
  
  Urban Fantasy
  
  
• The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (a hard boiled private eye who is also a wizard)
  
  
• Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia (Band of mercenaries hunt monsters. The author is very libertarian/right wing so if you can't stand that, you might not like the books. The kindle edition has to be bought from the baen.com bookstore)
  
  
• Grimnoire Chronicles by Larry Correia (1930's with magic, zeppelins, etc Same warning as above, but it's more subdued here.)
  
  
  Thrillers/Suspense
  
  
• Da Vinci Code/Angels and Demons by Dan Brown (even though I think Brown really needs to improve his writing style, he still can get the books going pretty intensely)
  
  
• Jurassic Park, Timeline, Congo, etc by Michael Crichton (a bit tougher reads since they're pretty scientific, but still good stuff)
  
  
• John Grisham's early work such as A Time to Kill, The Firm, Runaway Jury, etc. (legal thrillers but not hard to get into. I'm not a huge fan of his later stuff)

Pretty close: https://www.amazon.com/Jennifer-Government-Max-Barry/dp/1400030927/

[America's Game: The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation ] (https://www.amazon.com/Americas-Game-Football-Captured-Nation/dp/0375725067) by Michael MacCambridge is a really good starting point. It basically covers everything from the first draft to the early 2000.

If you're in the mood of pranking/educate her, pick the better version: Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde.

Go get this book. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0375725067?pc_redir=1409147524&robot_redir=1

One of the best football history books I've ever read - and it'll give you a new appreciation for your team. Basically, the NFC north wouldn't exist without the Browns.

Here's the story mentioned at the 45 min mark. (It's a quick read)

http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/harrison.html

Highly recommend it!

It can be found in this EXCELLENT short story collection

https://www.amazon.com/Welcome-Monkey-House-Collection-Short/dp/0385333501

You should read the book Year Zero :)

Jasper Fforde's [Shades of Grey] (http://www.amazon.com/Shades-Grey-Novel-Jasper-Fforde/dp/0143118587) - hard to describe, but so good. Social satire, humor, a different kind of fantasy...

It's my favorite of his books, though some find it more difficult than his Thursday Next series -

lol reddit.

The left wing version of this

I really recommend the annotated version

[Marisha Pessl Special topics in Calamity Physics http://www.amazon.com/Special-Topics-Calamity-Physics-Marisha/dp/0143112120/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1371423506&sr=8-2&keywords=marisha+pessl]

So Monday night the dogs woke me up with a nose to the face during a massive thunderstorm. Having no tornado warnings on my phone and a great appreciation for severe weather, I go to watch the proceedings: lightning doesn't stop flashing before the next bolt goes off, etc, etc. And then a tree lands two inches from my face.

Commence mad dash for the basement. Turns out the university unsubscribed me from severe weather alerts in the past week without telling me. My email and all those printing credits are still active though. Go figure.

So anyways, there is still no power, there is a tree on my house, my neighborhood looks like this and this and this and this, and I'm in Sweden. Very glad that husband was not home for that little escapade or he'd be a gibbering wreck. And I'm still not done compiling survey results.

By strange coincidence though, I was reading (and enjoying) The Lies of Locke Lamora on the plane over, and in downtown Stockholm, I found a little handwritten sign on a bookstore saying that Scott Lynch is going to be doing a signing there in two weeks. I think I may be in Estonia that day though.

...Imgur wouldn't let me make an album. Poo.

And in writing news, I have a hard copy of my MS left with a friend to read while I'm gone, but I haven't had a chance to write as my husband will not leave me alone. I know we've been apart since May, but he keeps following me to the bathroom and generally behaving like a starfish. It's old already.

He probably thinks Jennifer Government sounds like a utopia.

Not sure if it's appropriate for this thread and subreddit, but may I suggest a book? I just finished reading The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch and it's a funny, action-packed novel about a gang of thieves in a fantasy world and I already consider it one of my favorite books, it was so much fun to read.

I don't tend to do a ton of side project/personal work. I'd prefer to do other things with my off time most of the time. If I'm on something brand new I read or noodle with the tool/technique.

In your not-coding off time, try reading this book. It may explain your lack of motivation, and will entertain you either way.

Reminds me a bit of the book "the lies of Locke Lamora". Probably the best book ive ever read...
https://www.amazon.com/Lies-Locke-Lamora-Gentleman-Bastards/dp/055358894X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1550015147&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=the+lies+of+locke+lamora

This game was originally designed by author Max Barry as a sort of promotional website for his novel Jennifer Government, which is a satire of corporate oligopoly where everything (including government) has been privatized.

Zombie related: The Zombie Combat Manual by Roger Ma. The Walking Dead By Robert Kirkman. Zombies(http://www.amazon.com/Zombies-Record-Infection-Don-Roff/dp/0811871002/ref=pd_sim_b_13) by Don roff

Survival Related: The SAS Survival Guide, The Ultimate Sniper by (Ret.) Col. J. Plaster, The Emergency-Disaster Survival Guidebook.


I know it's not a book. The Colony is an interesting watch if you ever get some time to sink in information.

no, THIS is the breakfast of champions.

I don't believe this is in the same style, but it fits up with a lot of those on your to-read list.

Jennifer Government by Max Barry - It's dystopian future but feels a little bit lighter than something like 1984, Fight Club or Fahrenheit 451. It's also a more recently published book.

I guess when I say 'lighter' its hard to explain but it felt a little like when I read Catcher in the Rye in terms of gravity.

> Well, that's maybe because you redefined these words.

I didnt. But there are people who did.

Breakfast of Champions can be read on many levels and is thoroughly enjoyable. Vonnegut books were always on the shelves at my parents' house and I read that and then Venus on the Half Shell fake-ly written by Kilgore Trout (a Vonnegut character) but really done by Philip Jose Farmer -- then I started a long series of science fiction.

I had a facebook friend pick up Shades of Grey instead of 50 Shades of Grey.

Needless to say she was very confused by all the hype. It's a last resort thing, but if you can't find anything else try offering to buy it for her and just leaving off the "50."

Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive.

Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastards.

Peter V. Brett's The Demon Cycle is just ok, nothing amazing.

You might want to try Jennifer Government by Max Barry. It deals with some of these themes and has a few well-done action sequences.

Football almost died in the beginning of the 1900's when 11 college kids died in one season. However, Roosevelt (I believe it was him, I'm Canadian so forgive me) really loved football and didn't want the nation to be "soft" and thought that football was great for toughness. He legislated tons of shit and basically started the changes necessary to make football safer. In came the helmet.

Source: America's Game, the book.
http://www.amazon.ca/Americas-Game-Michael-MacCambridge/dp/0375725067

Quite the... NOVEL idea.

There's a book about this.

https://www.amazon.com/Shades-Grey-Novel-Jasper-Fforde/dp/0143118587

[Ishihara?] (http://www.amazon.com/Shades-Grey-Novel-Jasper-Fforde/dp/0143118587)

Is he from Chromatacia?

Sometimes also referred to as "Frowny Girl removing Beardy's head"

Amazon!

How about Year Zero?

Amazon link to said book

Year Zero.

They dig all our music. Source is the book Year Zero.

exhibit A

You should check out the goofy book Year Zero.

Here it is...
http://www.amazon.com/Year-Zero-Novel-Rob-Reid/dp/0345534514

You should read Year Zero.

I think OP's answer is kinda refering to Year Zero? Anyone?

Is this it?

Oh, oh! There are two collections of Kurt Vonnegut's short stories. They are almost uniformly excellent.

http://www.amazon.ca/Welcome-Monkey-House-Kurt-Vonnegut/dp/0385333501

http://www.amazon.ca/While-Mortals-Sleep-Unpublished-Fiction/dp/0385343744/ref=pd_sim_b_14?ie=UTF8&refRID=1GKQ35QW9TWSSE6YEC19

That's Welcome to the Monkey House, from Vonnegut's short story collection of the same name.

Breakfast of Champions

Lullaby

Nice list, have you read The Lies of Locke Lamora yet?

Not Similar to white collar, but for a fantasy-style "Ocean's 11" book:

Lies of Locke Lamora

Call Me By Your Name for queer book club and Lies of Locke Lamora.

• "Lies of Locke Lamora" by Scott Lynch
  
• "The Blade Itself" by Joe Abercrombie
  
• "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
  
• "The Way of Kings", "Mistborn", "Warbreaker" and "Elantris" by Brandon Sanderson
  
• "Theft of Swords" by Michael Sullivan
  
• The "Wild Cards" series, by George RR Martin

We

Read We then next.

We

Jennifer Government would probably work for you.

When I read Jennifer Government in the part about where you have to give your payment information before an ambulance is dispatched, I thought, "Wow, that would never happen here." Seems to be getting there.

so basically the plot to this

Ever read Jennifer Government?

It's only the begining.

Jennifer Government by Max Barry

It's from a crazy novel called Special Topics in Calamity Physics.

Fiction: Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut

Non-Fiction: The Hypochondriac's Pocket Guide to Horrible Diseases You Probably Already Have

The Zombie Combat Manual: A Guide to Fighting the Living Dead on my Zombie Apocalypse Wishlist.

Happy Birthday /u/SilentMase.

I would recommend The Lies of Locke Lamora.