i'd like to get into books

[CHOW CHOW]

i'd like to get into books, especially since you can just go to the library and borrow them for free

the only one i own is a graphic novel i bought a couple of years ago called Watchmen, which i've yet to read (i know it's supposedly amazing).  other than that, i haven't as much as picked one up since high school

some fiction stuff that interests me and i'd like to read about:

- epic space sci-fi a la mass effect

- spy thrillers / secret agents / government conspiracy / globe-trotting espionage / bourne-ish stuff

- any fiction books with big twists in the story that would blow me away

- futuristic themes a la minority report

- no horror

recommendations?

[FatalT]

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (Wicked Sci-Fi with a world where the internet is virtual reality. Some parts of it are a bit over-detailed though)
Ubik by Philip K. Dick (Sci-Fi with a kickass twist)
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (Words cannot express my love for this book)
Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card (This book is basically just Ender's Game from another character's point of view)

A few of my favorites. All of them are sci-fi.

[CHOW CHOW]

ender's game -- this one always seems to come up in book recommendation threads... it will be the first on my list to read.  i expect to be blown away

[CHOW CHOW]

oh my god... i meant FICTION not non-fiction.  holy crap... can you tell i haven't read a damn thing in ages?

[FatalT]

oh my god... i meant FICTION not non-fiction.  holy crap... can you tell i haven't read a damn thing in ages?

Heh, don't worry. I still don't know the difference between fiction and non-fiction without having to look up the definition.

[Tieno]

Silence by Endo Shusaku, one of the great works of japanese literature. I can promise you that (even for an atheist like me) this is an incredibly good book, heartwrenching and historically interesting. Emotionally very heavy, but a short and fast read. My brother (who studied japanology) recommended it to me.

Silence (沈黙, Chinmoku?) is a 1966 novel of historical fiction by Japanese author Shusaku Endo drawn from the oral histories of Kakure Kirishitan and Hanare Kirishitan communities in Japan. It is the story of a fictional Jesuit missionary sent to seventeenth century Japan, in the time of Kakure Kirishitan ("Hidden Christians") that followed the defeat of the Shimabara Rebellion. The recipient of the 1966 Tanizaki Prize, it has been called "Endo’s supreme achievement"[1] and "one of the twentieth century’s finest novels".[2] Written mostly in the form of a letter by its central character, the theme of a silent God who accompanies a believer in adversity was greatly influenced by the Catholic Endo's experience of religious discrimination in Japan, racism in France and debilitating tuberculosis.[3]

[FatalT]

I'm sure this was a joke but Jesus.

Mayne I ain't read no books. I just know genres, yo. I ain't givin' no shit 'bout some fiction and shit, mayne. I ain't do that. I jus' read. Naw'm sayin' shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

i'd like to get into books, especially since you can just go to the library and borrow them for free

the only one i own is a graphic novel i bought a couple of years ago called Watchmen, which i've yet to read (i know it's supposedly amazing).  other than that, i haven't as much as picked one up since high school

some fiction stuff that interests me and i'd like to read about:

- epic space sci-fi a la mass effect

- spy thrillers / secret agents / government conspiracy / globe-trotting espionage / bourne-ish stuff

- any fiction books with big twists in the story that would blow me away

- futuristic themes a la minority report

- no horror

recommendations?

First off, don't read Ender's Game.

Second, everything on your list describes Iain M. Banks' Use of Weapons to a T. It's being rereleased on 7/28.

[Eric P]

thirdeded

don't read ender's game.

if you want some epic sci-fi, try Vernon Virge's A Fire Upon The Deep

Now that veteran SF writer Vernor Vinge's most recent book, A Deepness in the Sky, has just won the Hugo Award for best SF novel of the year, it seems a good time to reassess the novel that inspired it, A Fire Upon the Deep, also a Hugo winner. That a work of SF and its sequel should both earn such recognition is unusual and attests to the author's skill and intelligence as a writer of richly complex hard SF "sense-of-wonder" yarns in the grandest style.

In A Fire Upon the Deep, Vinge has created a genuinely new and unique concept of the nature of the galaxy where the laws of physics vary with location. The greatest potential for intelligence lies furthest from the center, at the edges where computer-like superminds far beyond anything possible in a biological brain can be found. Myriads of sentient species have moved physically and intellectually, over an evolutionary time scale measured in billions of years, toward the region on the galactic rim known as The Beyond and The Transcendence, where god-like entities known as Powers exist. Their concerns are mostly incomprehensible to lesser beings, but occasionally a Power turns its attention back to the rest of the galaxy -- with the potential to do untold damage.

In the center of the Milky Way are the Unthinking Depths and the Slow Zone, regions where only simple creatures and technologies can function. When a team of scientists in the Straumli Realm of The Beyond discover and release an ancient Transcendent artifact, they unknowingly unleash an awesome power, the Blight, which destroys thousands of worlds by enslaving all natural and artificial intelligences.

From this disaster, a ship escapes with a family of scientists and their two pre-adolescent children, Jefri and his older sister Johanna, aboard. (They are notable examples of juvenile characters in an adult story that are not sickeningly cute or obnoxious!) They are shipwrecked on a planet in The Slowness, their parents killed and the youngsters taken captive by particularly fascinating aliens of a medieval-level society called the Tines. These beings, four-legged creatures who run in packs, are individually no smarter than dogs or rats, but when they coalesce in packs of four or more, they form self-aware unitary persons of surprising abilities.

Another ship comes seeking the stranded siblings and the Countermeasure, which might prevent the Blight's spread. Among the ship's crew is Pham Nuwen, the colorful "enhanced" human who is the protagonist of A Deepness in the Sky. It is here that the various plot strands connect and are resolved in a tale of gripping suspense, surprises and bittersweet satisfaction.

A Fire Upon the Deep fully deserves all its accolades -- the overall concept is an utterly enthralling tour de force of science-fictional imagination: the aliens are developed with memorable skill and perception; the relentless pace of the story never lags (especially the plight of the thoroughly likeable Johanna and Jefri); not all the major characters survive (refreshing realism); and the clear unadorned prose style conveys vast and strange galactic vistas and intimate emotional interaction with equal ease and sometimes simultaneously! This is science-fiction wonder -- intelligent, esthetic, moving, creative -- of the highest order and deep enough to set readers on fire for more. A Deepness in the Sky awaits!

[duckman2000]

[demi]

Read Ender's Game, it has the best naked boy wrestling scene ever

[Tucah]

I remember loving Ender's Game when I read it. Of course, I was like 12 then, but still.

[Robo]

Iain Banks

[demi]

Read Johnny Got His Gun, To Kill A Mockingbird, Of Mice And Men

General books that you may have read in school, but if not, they are good reads

[Eric P]

(Image removed from quote.)

did you see the guardian article on that?

http://books.guardian.co.uk/bookclub/story/0,,2287970,00.html

John Mullan on the use of explanation as a device in Iain Banks's The Wasp Factory 

[Howard Alan Treesong]

A Fire Upon the Deep is good. I like it better than the sequel.

I am stumping for Use of Weapons because it is not only good but also prominently features the Culture's black ops squad (Special Circumstances) as well as having one of my top 3 twists of all time in a book. So given all of CHOW CHOW's recommendations it seems like the best possible book.

If you want something a  bit more modern and zippy I totally recommend Old Man's War, which is like Ender's Game if instead of little children, space war was fought by awesome killing fuck machines plus alpha

[recursivelyenumerable]

ken mcleod's pretty rad, although i'm insecure about my ability to spell his name

[Cormacaroni]

ken mcleod's pretty rad, although i'm insecure about my ability to spell his name

Not sure if I would recommend him for someone who hasn't read a book since high school. This, and the recommendations for Cormac McCarthy and Iain Banks strike me as analogous to me recommending Crossfit to Raban. I actually agree with the Ender's Game call, cliched as it is in gaming circles; if it turns out not to be substantial enough, try some of the others mentioned here. CHOW CHOW, I don't intend for this to be patronizing. If a non-gamer asks me what they should play, I tend to recommend Super Mario Galaxy rather than Ninja Gaiden, because as awesome as NG is, it could easily put that person off gaming for life if they try it before they're ready for it.

[MyNameIsMethodis]

Read some Philip K Dick.

The best way to get into books is take your favorite movies and see if they're based on a book and read it. Internet reccomendations for books are distinguished mentally-challenged. Twenty million people will suggest twenty million different books and theres always a bias.

[recursivelyenumerable]

a bias toward awesome

[Tucah]

Read some Philip K Dick.

The best way to get into books is take your favorite movies and see if they're based on a book and read it. Internet reccomendations for books are distinguished mentally-challenged. Twenty million people will suggest twenty million different books and theres always a bias.

Both of these are great suggestions. I've found so many authors I love because I had seen movies based on their books.

[Flannel Boy]

Since I don't read much fiction--I did read a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy last weekend--I'll recommend some non-fiction. Currently, I'm reading War: The New Edition by Gwynne Dyer and Keys to Great Writing by Stephen Wilbers. War is a fantastic book that is well written, thorough, and engaging. Because I dislike romanticism, my favorite chapter is on hunter and gatherer tribes, detailing the high causality rates of its members. Keys to Great Writing is the best book on style that I have read. It expounds on the work of Strunk and White, offering simple, helpful advise, but much more detailed.

[Cormacaroni]

'causality rates'?

now there's a Dick-ian turn of phrase...

[Great Rumbler]

Ecologic Envoy by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

It's about an economics teacher/super-spy/bio-terrorist assassin/diplomat who is sent to deal with an escalating situation between his homeworld and an intergalactic empire.

[Reb]

What is wrong with you guys? Ender's Game is perfect if you want to get into books.