School is finishing up so it means ridiculously long flights back to Australia, ridiculously long waits at airports and a ridiculous amount of free time at the beach. If anyone feels like making a top 3, 5, 10 or so list of books to read I'd be delighted. Ive just got my hands on a tablet and intend on downloading a bunch of books to get through this summer.

Books I've read recently -
"Down Under" Bill Bryson (magnificent)
"A brief history of time" Stephen Hawking (easier to read and understand than I'd expected)
"The Beach" Alex Garland (the book ruined the movie... I watched it first then read the book, one of the best books I have read)
"Twilight" Stephenie Meyer (Had to see what all the fuss was about... regret it)
"Hunger games" Suzanne Collins (Enjoyable and will probably read the rest these holidays)
"The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" Douglas Adams (Quirky and enjoyable)
"LotR" Tolkien (Actually found it too wordy and ended up having to read the same pages more than once)
"Harry Potter" JK Rowling (I add this to recently as I think Ive read the series about 4 times now, brilliant)
A few others that obviously werent too memorable as I cant remember....

Can anyone tell me what the 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series is like? Love the show. I am also interested in some of the modern and older classics (1984, Ulysses etc). My only worry is that (moreso in film) people tend to rave about classics simply because they are classics, I had to read a lot of gothic literature during Uni and while it was nice to read them in an educational sense, I got bored pretty quickly.

I keep saying it - Vonnegut back catalogue. Ridiculously easy to read, full of ideas, high on pessimism (always good for a young reader).

Slaughterhouse Five
Cat's Cradle
Jailbird
Hocus Pokus
Sirens of Titan
etc

My personal favourites are:
Bright Shiny Morning - James Frey (the guy who wrote A Million Little Pieces, book about LA and follows a few characters in separate story lines)

The Art of Racing In The Rain - Garth Stein (especially if you're a dog owner)

The Blind Side - Michael Lewis (way better than the movie version)

Football Manager Stole My Life - Iain Macintosh (if you're an FM addict)

Just picked up off of my old man The Forever War. Anyone read it? it's a Sci Fi parody of the Vietnam War. I still have a few books in front to read (including Cat's Craddle for the umpenth time @ Benjamin) before i get to it but some fine reading coming up leading in to the Xmas break!

Edited by Rocknerd: 10/12/2012 12:01:43 PM

Just finished Lord of the Rings for the third time. Going to make it my book that I read once a year, every year. It's just so amazing.

Now to start on the A Song of Fire and Ice series.

I do that with Harry Potter. Once a year, i always reread the series.

Anyone read (or has read) legal thrillers that can recommend a title and/or author? I'm more specifically after a courtroom novel. Doesn't necessarily have to be fiction.

Obvious answer is John Grisham.

I've read his good stuff and am working my way through his catalogue, was interested in another author.

Can confirm. Brilliant author.

Perhaps Steve Martini or Richard North Patterson?

(Note though these authors also have some books that aren't legal thrillers)

Yeah went into a book exchange the other day and was recommended Degree of Guilt by Richard North Patterson. Feisty old lass that owns the place threatened to hang, draw and quarter me if I tried to trade in my Grisham collection. He is banned from her collection. :lol:

Got a good one that I've been hanging out for, for Christmas;

The Art of War - Master Sun Tzu.

-PB

Michael Connelly is pretty good. Michael Robotham is another option (local too!)

Just finished Book II in the Millennium series - The Girl Who Played With Fire. It's the sequel to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Absolutely fantastic. Got both Books II & III for Christmas - can't wait to get onto the third book. Stieg Larsson is such a fantastic crime thriller novelist - just can't see to put his books down! I reckon once the movie adaptation comes out it'll be as good as the first one. It's a real shame he died so young (Stieg Larsson) - I think he could have done a Bryce Courtney and written a really long list of novels.

Anybody read the entire trilogy?

Just finished reading the secret race by Tyler Hamilton (& Coyle). Was expecting it to be a Lance hateathon. But it wasn't, a really good read.

Didn't read anywhere near as much as i would've liked last year. Just got back into reading Inheritance, the final book in the Eragon series. After that, I have Dave Grohl's biography, Soccernomics (the moneyball equivalent for football), Running with the Kenyans and The Blueprint (about the New England Patriots from 2000-08).

Bought a few books today. The Fault in Our Stars and Looking For Alaska by John Green and The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Really can't decide what to read first.

Jelly. I want to read all of those.

You buy that from a bookstore ore online? Do want.

Has anyone here listened to an audio book? Good for long drives in the car. Audible.com are pretty good.

I downloaded the audiobook for The Appeal by John Grisham, but haven't had the need to listen to it yet. Might try it out at the gym today. Never heard one before, sounds surprisingly good.

I've got a whole bunch of eBooks on my phone in case I'm in a situation with nothing to do and am without my book. Great way to drain the battery. Anyone read on eReaders? Real put-off for me.

I got it for Christmas last year and haven't got round to reading it yet. IIRC, my parents got it off Amazon, I'll get back to you on that one.

Yes. Stephen Fry reading the Harry Potter books.

Nah it's cool. I can source it, I'd just rather check it out (and probably buy) in a store first.

Just finished the third book in the Millenium series - The girl who kicked the hornets nest.

Absolutely brilliant series, if you're into crime thrillers I really highly suggest you give all 3 books a read.

The ending was good too - especially how Salander drops her hatred of Blomkvist and they become friends again.

My Uncle left us his Kindle at Christmas as he wasn't enjoying it, finally fired it up today and found it's stocked with 390 odd books all in similar taste to the sort of stuff I enjoy reading, including a couple of new books from one of my favourite authors who I'd forgotten about. It's taking a bit of getting used to but I've already burned a few hours today with a good read, something I haven't been able to manage for a while regrettably.

Edited by fredsta: 12/1/2013 12:25:08 AM

I just finished reading the first one the other day actually. Fantastic book, just waiting for the next one to become available at the library.

Nearly finished Inheritance. Very good so far. About 100 pages to go :(

Can I Just remind people not to give spoilers away especially on how a book ends that I am about to start reading.

i'm looking in your direction Heineken!!!!!!

That would be epic :)

Currently reading Anathem by Neal Stephenson, tis a brick.