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Nov. 16th, 2004 11:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynneRandomly, because I need to read more books than fanfic now...
Who are your favorite authors/books and why?
Also, I'm falling in love all over again with Ron Weasley and now I need to find a Ron icon.
*almost falls asleep* Tomorrow.
Who are your favorite authors/books and why?
Also, I'm falling in love all over again with Ron Weasley and now I need to find a Ron icon.
*almost falls asleep* Tomorrow.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Plugplugplug!
Date: 2004-11-16 11:21 pm (UTC)He writes sci-fi - Neuromancer being his first novel and the first in a trilogy. The other two in the trilogy are Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive.
Don't know how much you like techno sci-fi, really, but he's definitely worth a shot. If you want a taste of his work before diving into a novel, his book of short stories is call Burning Chrome.
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Date: 2004-11-16 11:37 pm (UTC)The Fionavar Tapistry by Guy Gavriel Kay (which consists of The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, and The Darkest Road)
It's in the urban fantasy genre, and it follows a group of students taken from a festival at the University of Toronto into an alternate world. The worldbuilding is lovely, and the characters were what drew me in. It's interesting to watch them grow as individuals as well as the interrelations between them all.
*sigh*
(And on a random note, I sec the above rec because oh, Necromancer had me sitting back in a daze after I finished. It's short, length wise, but intense. And I love William Gibson as a writer :))
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Date: 2004-11-16 11:47 pm (UTC)Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte - because I am an angst-whore and there's not much that's as sprawlingly desperately angsty as Heathcliff/Cathy. AND THE WRITING. Gah. I don't even want to breathe when I'm reading it because everything's so vivid, it's like being there and breathing would blow it away like smoke. *_*
Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters - because, y'know, Victorian lesbian porn and theatre. SOGOOD. SOSAD. SOPRETTY. It's gorgeous.
It by Stephen King - because no book has ever scared me as much and yet still I read it every year. That's got to be a sign of greatness. ;) I'm less afraid of it now (I'm terrified of clowns, and this is like the ULTIMATE killer clown :O) but that doesn't make the writing any less creepy, or any less beautiful. And it's so sad, people don't seem to mention that when I read reviews or discussions. It's heartbreaking, I always cry.
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski - I can't even descibe this one. Everybody should read it. It's not nearly as famous as it deserves to be. It's sort of difficult to read, but OMG INCREDIBLE.
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster - kids' book from the '60s. People say it's very dated and patronising, but I don't think it is. It's charming. It's my comfort-book if I'm having a bad day. :D (And the first thing I ever wrote fanfiction for, before I even knew fanfiction existed.)
Kushiel's Dart, Kushiel's Chosen, and Kushiel's Avatar by Jacqueline Carey - I've not finished Avatar yet but I already KNOW this is my favourite fantasy epic of all time. *_* Better than Lord of the Rings, since that's the one everything seems to have to be compared with. It's got everything, there's drama and angst and blistering hot sex and AAH THE LOVE STORY and GAH, this woman knows how to really tell a story. SOGOOD. And I'm in love with Joscelin. Literary hetcrush.
Wind on Fire by William Nicholson - another trilogy, by the man who wrote the screenplay for Gladiator. THIS IS BETTER THAN GLADIATOR! It's scary. They're marketed for kids, like HP was at first, and the first book is more childish than the next two because the main characters are only children in this and they're 15 in the others, but it's SCARY. And so vivid, they'd never need to make a film of these because his words do better than any film ever could. (Random: it's the only twincest I ship passionately.) Definitely deserves to be up there with HP and HDM, I honestly don't know why it's not as famous.
And the big famous ones - Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, Winnie the Pooh (yes I am serious, Winnie the Pooh is a blazing star of comedy, I can CRY laughing at it), Narnia - don't need extra words. :D
And: everything by Neil Gaiman. I don't have a single favourite. Possibly Smoke and Mirrors, just because I love short stories. His take on Snow White (Snow, Glass, Apples) breaks me apart. Coraline is terrifying and Terry Gilliam should film it, but I hear they're doing a claymation musical version like the Nightmare Before Christmas and it makes me want to stab people. >.< Um... NEVERWHERE! And Good Omens, with Terry pratchett, is possibly the funniest book of all time.
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Date: 2004-11-17 03:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-17 12:19 am (UTC)The book I actually want to rec is called War for the Oaks by Emma Bull. It probably makes more sense if you have some background in music, because most of the main characters are in a band, but I really have no musical knowledge and I think it's a fabulous book. It takes place in contemporary Minneapolis, and is centered around a girl who gets herself caught in the middle of a faerie war. I'm summarising horribly, actually, but it's one of my very favourite books ever, and is worth a read, if only for the phouka, who is an absolutely fantastic character and reminds me vaguely of Sirius.
Finally, everything by Neil Gaiman. Who writes absolutely fantastic stuff.
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Date: 2004-11-17 04:05 am (UTC)He's written 4 books, about a wonderful heroine called Tuesday Next who is a Literary Detective.
Imaginative and well written alternate universe to ours, with lots and lots of literary puns and allusions.
Rynne - I know that you will absolutely adore these. The first one is called "The Eyre Affair".
"Plock Plock" (and when you read the books, you'll understand that!)
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Date: 2004-11-17 05:14 am (UTC)If you enjoy juvenile sword and sorcery fantasy books, definitely give Tamora Pierce a go. She was my JKR when I was 13, and I still love her books more than the Harry Potter books. (favourite for 13 years)
Historical fiction (with some excellent, steamy sex), try Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander" series. Her books are really well-researched, and are set in 18th century Scotland and America. (favourite for eight years)
I have other favourites, but these are great if you really want to immerse yourself in another world/time/place.
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Date: 2004-11-17 02:00 pm (UTC)I second this, deffenitly. FP might have been one of the reasons I choose History as major. And his last one, 'Baudolino'? I was working in a gallery while reading it, and people would come inside just because they'd hear me laughing outside.
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Date: 2004-11-17 08:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-17 06:14 am (UTC)Anything by Gary Jennings, with emphasis on The Journeyer and Aztec. Both are fiction based on fact, The Journeyer being a fictionalised version of the life of Marco Polo. I've had this book in my collection twice and need another copy. No one ever returns it when I loan it out!
While I find Stephen King very repetitive at times, I would add The Stand to the list.
I recently started reading some of the classics that I never had to take in school. Love Jane Austen, particularly Pride and Prejudice.
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Date: 2004-11-17 10:19 am (UTC)"The Thorn Birds" - because it is an amazing book. That is all.
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Date: 2004-11-17 11:12 am (UTC)Gabriel Garcia-Marquez. I don't know if I would have loved him when I was your age, because some of the things he's fascinated by are more interesting to me now than they were then, but...
His books are all written gorgeously, and they are full of amazing characters and wonderful... STUFF.
My favorite books: Chronicle of a Death Foretold; A Hundred Years of Solitude; Love in a Time of Cholera.
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Date: 2004-11-17 01:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-17 03:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-17 03:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-17 03:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-17 03:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-17 07:43 pm (UTC)I also love Anne of Green Gables by Lucy M. Montgomery, I think. And yes, not the most adultish series, but I positively love the oldness of it. Watch the movie version with Megan Follows sometime. The breathtaking scenary will make you drool.
And The Great Gatsby and The Scarlet Letter are both great books to read although I'm fairly sure you've already read them. Hrm...have more, but I can never think of many because I love books too much. I rarely like current popular writers though; they're too repetitive and overrated for me.
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Date: 2004-11-17 08:45 pm (UTC)Love P&P though, and the Anne books. :D