What are the best books out there to read?

Question

personal suggestions and reasons please!

Answer 1

Anything by Dan Brown, particularly "Angels and Demons" cos it's so thrilling and you'll find yourself glued to it throughout the night.

Anything by Dave Pelzer and Frank McCourt cos they are educators who have had desolate and frightening childhoods, survived it to tell us about it, and that's very admirable.

"Captain Corelli's Mandolin" and "Red Dog" by Louis de Bernieres, cos both books are about love and devotion, the latter about an Australian dog. I cried my eyes out reading that one cos I love "Red" so so much!!! It's hardcover and pretty pricey but really worth a read. You'll never see your pet dog/dogs in general the same again after reading "Red Dog".

Answer 2

I'm an avid reader and currently have over 500 books in my inventory and 100 on ebooks. My focus however is in Fantasy, books such as The Inheritance Trilogy by Christopher Paolini. The first book "Eragon" will be released as a movie on the 15th, "Eldest" was the second and the book was equally good.

The "Harry Potter" series by J.K. Rowling (although portrayed to be a children's booh) was actually a captivating tale and the movies that followed surpased my expectations.

By David & Leigh Eddings was a beautiful tale "Polgara the Sorceress". They have a complete collection of stories following the book that alone could fill two shelves.

If Dark Fantasy might be more for you I admittly suggest "The Black Jewels Trilogy" by Anne Bishop. Also written by her was "Sebastian". I'm twiddling my thumbs in anticipation of her latest book.

If any of these has sparked your interest then you can drop me a line and would be more than happy to share the rest of my collection with you.

Answer 3

There are so many...
Dan Brown as someone suggested is a really good current fiction writer and is perfect if you're just looking for a quick, fun read. These are some books I would suggest:

War and Peace -By: Leo Tolstoy
To Kill a Mocking Bird -By: Harper Lee
Animal Farm -By: George Orwell
The Fountain Head -By: Ayn Rand
Tuesdays With Morrie -By: Mitch Albom
Confederacy of Dunces -By: John Kennedy Toole
The Old Man and the Sea -By: Ernest Hemingway

Well I could go on and on... I'll stop there. :)

All of these books touched me in different ways so I'm not going to go into why you should read each one. Read the jackets and decide for yourself. :)

Oh and if you have a sense of humor you should also read The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy -By: Douglas Adams

Happy Reading.

Answer 4

Please visit the website below and try some since they're the 100 most meaningful books of all time. However, I'd recommend some 7 titles I've read (Nos. 8-10 not in the list), all are readble, understandable and worth spending your precious time for each one.
1. The stranger
2. Love in the time of cholera
3.The tin drum
4. The old man and the sea
5. The trial
6. 1984
7. Mrs Dalloway
8. If on a winter's night a traveler (by Italo Calvino)
9. The cairo trilogy (by Naguib Mahfouz)
10. The spy who came in from the cold (by John Le Carre)
Enjoy!

Answer 5

For non fiction, there is a book entitled
"The Late Great Planet Earth." Good reading.

For fiction, try all of the James Patterson books. His main character, Alex Cross, has been portrayed in two of Patterson's books made into movies.
Along Came a Spider is one of them.
Morgan Freeman plays the role of Alex.
Best to read the books about Alex, they are more interesting and his latest one entitled Alex is going to let us know who killed his wife. Some of his books are not as good as the Alex Cross character. Start with his first (any of his books will list them in order of year published).

Jonathan Kellerman (who is a psychologist in real life) also writes very good books, at least to me. He usually writes about some person who has a form of mental disorder, (could be the killer or the sought after victim).

For fun reading, check our "The Autobiography of Henry VIII , written by Margaret George. Of course, the title is misleading because this is a work of fiction but nonetheless entertaining.

Best of reading to you. (I would suggest the Da Vinci Code but you probably have read it. )Another work of fiction based on some facts as well. Gives you a lot of food for thought and I do not think of it as being sacreligious. Dan Brown's books are very interesting and controversial.

If you like classics, pretty much all of them are good.

I know I have left some others out, but not enough space.

Answer 6

My personal top 5 fictional novels:

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein-called the most famous science fiction novel ever written! This book was written in 1961 and was so far ahead of ites time it is difficult to believe. I call it the story of the 2nd coming of Christ. Heinlein was invited by NASA to be a guest commentator at the lunar landing. Quite an honor for a writer of fiction. His last several books before he died were New York Times no 1 best sellers before release based on presales

King Rat by James Clavell. The story of an American hustler from the Bronx in Changi, a Japanese POW camp in WW2. It most likely based on a real person since Clavell was a POW at Changi for 3 years. I'm not positive about the the death rate there but it was incredibly high.Changi was in Singapore and there were approx 25,000 prisoners there almost all British & Australian.Most of the deaths were of starvation and dysentary. It is a small and extremely riveting novel.

Tai Pan by Clavell. The story of the founding of Hong Kong by American and British opium smugglers. Another riveting tale by Clavell, the Tai Pan of Hong Kong , to this day, is the owner of the richest trading company in the city. Clavell also wrote other bestselling novels such as Shogun, Whirlwind, and Gaijin.

Trinity by Leon Uris-The story of the Irish and English conflict starting at its roots in about 1600 and covering up to about 1920. After you finish this book you will understand why the provisional IRA refuses to give up. And you will despise the British ariostocracy of the the day for actual crimes against humanity.A very long read of about 1300 pages and extremely tough to put down.Uris wrote other bestsellers such as Battle Cry, the story of the US Marines in the south pacific and centering on Guadacanal, probably the bloodiest battle in the history of the marines. It was written about 5 years after the end of WW2 and won the Pulitzer Prize if Iremember correctly.Uris was a marine and fought at Guadacanal.. He also wrote Exodus, Armagedden, The Haj, and several others,all best sellers and all very good reading.

Houndogman by Fred Gibson the author of Ol Yeller. A very difficult book to find, and published by the Univerisity of Nebraska. Your bookstore can order it but it takes 6 to 8 weeks to arrive. I named myself after the character in the book. Need I say more?

Answer 7

Without know your personal taste it's hard to suggest a book but since you participate on yahoo answers it tells me that you are very much interested in the world we live. Having that in mine I recommend a fascinating book: THE WORLD IS FLAT
( Author: Thomas L. Friedman.)

Answer 8

Anything by Robert Anton Wilson, the man is a genius. I've only gotten around to reading three, so I can't really give you specifics on his best work, but Illuminatus! trilogy is awesome. A total mindfuck.

Answer 9

King Fortis the Brave

Answer 10

Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer, because it is the most believable fantasy story ever written, and the characters are so solid that when I look up I almost expect to see Edward looking straight back at me. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened.