Reccomend us some books to read

[Lakeview Bulldog]

The Dark Tower series by Stephen King is excellent. Sabriel, Lirieal and The Abhorsen are excellent fantasy books. Also 1984 is a must read, I can say that it literally changed my life. Fareinheit 451 is an amazing book also. Anyhthing by Isaac Aisimov is worth reading too, the man is still ahead of his time and most of his books were written 50+ years ago. I like Harry Turtledove for so interesting, if not longwinded reads.

[robnix]

Shall we create a AO book repository for book worms?

Quite honestly i've relegated my reading to tech manuals periodicals on esoteric subjects like paintball and graphic design and motrorcycles. Its been awhile since read a real book.

Pls reccomend me some books on anthropology, specifically technology and how its changed culture.

also: military books about recent events, gulf war, terrorism, pro war & Anti war books, war memoirs ect.

The last good war/millitary book i read was With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa
by E.B. Sledge

some sci fiction would be nice too if you have any. The last one I read was Phili k. Dick's
Do androids dream of electric sheep.

Here's another suggestion, the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik. Excellent alternate history combining dragons and the Napoleonic wars.

[robnix]

Theres a ton of godawful scifi out there that is popular for some reason (Fantasy as well).

It usually takes me about 5 pages to realize that a book is going to be a load of crap. I won't stop there, but usually I already know.

I have a real problem with authors who don't know how to edit their writing. Its great that authors have a billion detailed ideas for their world, but we don't need to hear them all. It distracts from the book. Most of the fiction I tend to like is minimalism, books should be crafted, not crapped out onto the pages. You can spew all your ideas down onto paper, but then you need to edit it into a workable, cohesive, and well-written story.

Also, I hate when authors assume their readers are idiots. I don't need a detailed description of everything you talk about. Assume that we, as the reader, have half a brain and can figure things out on our own.

Sometimes these kinds of novels can be fun to read, but are FAR from what should be considered "good books".

Maybe I'm just a snob but there are way better scifi books out there.

Not really a snob. I've read books that were great stories, but violated my sense of literary taste with either:

a) terrible dialog.
b) poorly planned endings.
c) environment over plot.
d) flat characters.

terrible dialog is my biggest pet peeve, and the one thing I simply can't get past when reading.

[SCpoloRicker]

I'm a huge literary snob; so I'm getting a kick out of a lot of these replies...

[kruger]

Robert Jordan Wheel of Time series. The first 8 books are good reads, then they taper off a bit.

My all time favorite book is Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard. I dont beleive in his Dianetics theory, but he does write a great Sci-fi story. Also, by Hubbard, the Invasion Earth series. I laffed my *** off on those books. Excellent read and very entertaining. Nearly got divorced trying to get thru those. There are ten of them.

[conbon]

Marine Sniper. Follows a sniper through nam, till he gets in an accident at the end and.....Oh wait, I don't want to spoil anything.