Please, recommend me a great book?

Question

Hello there, I am looking for a great fiction book that I could read. I don't want just any book, I would like a book that is possibly high level, the reason being, I want to improve my writing skills (punctuation, outline, etc).

Here are some of the genres I like in books; Drama, Mystery, Horror, Teen (if it high leveled), Eating (as in people with eating disorders, over weight, etc), and some books with a little bit of romance in it.

Thank you!

(By the way, I am a 16 year old male)

Answer 1

for your age I have the best suggestion of them all, a great classic of the science fiction genre, that is a classic in literature by now.

FRANK HERBERT- DUNE

this is an epical novel about a feudal society in an interplanetary setting, filled with economic interests, drama, politics, religion, intrigues, ambition, love and lots of suspense.
I read it exactly at your age and found it amazing and fascinating. Herbert's style is exceptional and he uses elaborate English structure.
check it out in Amazon, there you can find out more reviews and see that I am right !!!
good luck and have fun reading

Answer 2

For high-level, I would recommend Jack Vance. He uses the most amazing vocabulary of any author I have ever read - but he writes scifi and fantasy, so this is probably not up your alley. If it is, look at "Tales from the Dying Earth" here http://www.life-after-harry-potter.com .

My second recommendation is (in agreement with others) classics. This: http://www.interleaves.org/~rteeter/grtother.html#great includes lots of lists, but I especially like the Harvard Classics list - all the books that I should have read, but (mostly) never did.

Finally, I recommend Dracula. A true classic, surprisingly excellent, free online and it fits your criteria to a tee. Warning: it starts out *very* slowly. However, by the time you reach the end you'll realize that you have read a really excellent book.

I strongly disagree with the recommendations (made above) of Dune and Frankenstein. Both are awful. Frankenstein is without a doubt the lousiest "classic" (of any sort) that I have ever read.

Improving your writing skills:
I have the good fortune of having gone to some very excellent small-town public schools as a child, I was very competitive (as most young boys are), and I was very fond of reading when I was in school. As a result, I have always found grammar a breeze, and outlining a wonderful tool that I still make use of (though infrequently). Having never had to struggle with the grammatical aspect of writing, I can offer only limited advice. Other than studying Strunk and White http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Style , I can only recommend making an effort to always correct your work. Some of my friends in high school used to ask me to find the errors with their work - and I was glad to do so. I'm sure there is someone you know who is also adept in this area who will be glad to find the errors in your work - and even explain what the errors are. This will certainly improve your skills in this area.

Jim, http://www.life-after-harry-potter.com

Answer 3

i hope these suggestions are what you're looking for:

start with some classics. one that i loved was The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. its a book about the corruption of society. Great Expectations is also good choice.

Some teen books I really enjoyed were The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Its a mystery, horror kind of series. If you like fantasy, try the Black Jewels Trilogy.

I'd also recommend Dan Brown, especially Angels and Demons (I thought it was a much better read than the Da Vinci Code).

I hope that's what you were looking for and I hope you enjoy them!

Answer 4

a undeniable Slant of sunshine - Laura Whitcomb A Kiss In Time - Alex Finn a large and poor elegance series – Libba Bray Beastly - Alex Flinn Blood and Chocolate - Annette Klause Dragon Rider by using Cornelia Funke Graceling series by using Kristin Cashore Falling below - Gwen Hayes Haven - Kristi prepare dinner Inkheart series - Cornelia Funke Mediator series – Meg Cabot Sea exchange - Aimee Friedman Sookie Stackhouse series - Charlaine Harris The Alchemyst series - Michael Scott The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis The Fetch– Laura Whitcomb The Graveyard e book - Neil Gaiman The night Circus - Erin Morgenstern The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon Wings – Aprilynne Pike

Answer 5

hey there, May I suggest the Tom Clancey novels. Start with The Hunt for Red October, ( The book is SO much better than any of the movies, which really pissed me off , BTW), and go right on through them, in order. Go to the libray and check them all out! Once you start, you'll have a hard time putting them down.

Answer 6

If you like reading non-fiction, about what goes on nowadays - I recommend these two -

1) "Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader"
written by Bradley K. Martin

2) "Rogue Regime"
written by Jasper Becker

These two well-written books give an insight about the North Korean Government.

Fiction?

Try all the books written by Clive Cussler.

The hero is Dirk Pitt, with his sidekick Al Giordino. These are well-written.

Answer 7

The Locket by Evans
The Great Divide by Bunn
The Hobbit by Tolkien
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Smith
To Kill a Mockingbird by Lee
A Christmas Carol by Dickens
Emma by Austen

Answer 8

Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Pirsig
On the Road, by Jack Kerouac

Answer 9

Mm. One 16 year old to another, I suggest Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It's kinda dry to most people, but I found it fascinating. Also, anything by Ayn Rand. I've heard that The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera was good.

Answer 10

LISEY'S STORY
by Stephen King
A widow must confront the dark secrets of her husband’s past in Stephen King’s deeply personal novel.

OR his newest.....

Is it even possible to mix the words "strange-but-true" and "Stephen King" in the same thought?

Sure, King writes some strange stuff, that much we all know. This is the man who 25 years ago unleashed a teen-age girl with telekinetic powers upon a small New England town; the man who breathed life -- and death -- into Christine, a 1958 red Plymouth Fury; the man who, through short stories, novellas, novels, screenplays and a mini-series, has defined the horror genre (and the depths of insomnia) for legions of readers.

So what in the world is a real-life, truly existing person doing as a key element in Stephen King new book "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" -- not only in the book, but in the title?

What's going on here?

Here's the answer, in King's words:

"My idea was to write a kind of fairy-tale, 'Hansel and Gretel' without Hansel. My heroine (Trisha) would be a child of divorce living with her mother and maintaining a meaningful connection with her father mostly through their mutual love of baseball and the Boston Red Sox. Lost in the woods, she'd find herself imagining that her favorite Red Sox player was with her, keeping her company and guiding her through the terrible situation in which she found herself. Tom Gordon, #36, would be that player. Gordon is a real pitcher for the Red Sox; without his consent I wouldn't have wanted to publish the book. He did give it, for which I am deeply grateful.

"'The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon' isn't about Tom Gordon or baseball, and not really about love, either," King says. "It's about survival, and God, and it's about God's opposite as well. Because Trisha isn't alone in her wanderings. There is something else in the woods -- the God of the Lost is how she comes to think of it -- and in time she'll have to face it."

You can face it now, with an excerpt from "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon".