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Mr. Darcy was like the Edward Cullen of Victorian England. Or something like that.

Except quite a bit better, what with the fact that the protagonist does not instantly and mindlessly fall in love with him upon initially seeing him.

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Speaking of vampires... I've been trying to read Dracula (again). I got a good deal further this time, but now that

Lucy Westenra is dead

it's not all that interesting any more.

I don't think that a person in the 21st century can really appreciate Dracula anyway. We're all so familiar with the idea of vampires that the concept isn't all that scary.

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The Killing Joke by Anthony Horowitz is a good book unfortunately there is a part that rivals the camping part of HP7 when they go to the Bridgend equivalent

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-Nine Stories by J.D Salinger

and speaking of J.D Salinger, I LOVED The Catcher in the Rye.

Let's hope his mythological vault will turn out some surprising works. Though I'd much prefer him alive and secretive once again over dead and public-published.

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Hee hee I'm a twilight fan =3

I like Harry Potter

Dragonriders of Pern is pretty interesting and these other books from Anne McCaffrey. The group doesn't really have a name but they're called "Freedom's Landing," "Freedom's Choice," and "Freedom's Challenge."

I've read quite a few Shannara books

I've read the Inheritance saga - Eragon, Eldest, and Brisingr (therefore how I got my name)

And then there are other books that I've read as well... I read a lot so I can't really remember much of them XD

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It's difficult for me to read books on my own because school is constantly assigning them, but for Christmas I got A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (previously mentioned somewhere in this topic) and I'd very much like to read it by...unfortunately, probably once school ends.

A favorite series of mine is the graphic novel BONE, by Jeff Smith. I've also blown through the Harry Potter series and got to the Hobbit, but never managed to read Tolkien's other books...

And, if it's good for anything, I Am America (And So Can You!) I have read.

Edited by Catnip
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I've also blown through the Harry Potter series and got to the Hobbit, but never managed to read Tolkien's other books...

If you were able to read and understand the Hobbit, you'll be able to read the others.

Dragonriders of Pern

An obvious reference to Elibe, perhaps by someone with a strong Chinese accent?

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I'm a big fan of Edgar Allan Poe and HP Lovecraft (especially Lovecraft, though). Also, the Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz is a particular favourite.

I read a huge amount of books, but those are the only ones that come to mind right now, (which haven't already been mentioned).

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Only twenty-four chapters. But you might be disappointed, toward the end you gear up to fight two of their generals, and it turns out they aren't dragonriders at all, just an ordinary General and a Sage!

According to Wikipedia, the series consists of 18 novels or novellas and several short stories, most of which have been collected in two volumes. (As of July 2006)

Edited by Hero
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I have read:

Everything from Isaac Asimov

Everything from Arthur C. Clarke

Everything from Clive Cussler

Everything from Agatha Christie

Everything form Arthur Conan Doyle

Everything from Ellery Queen

Everything from the Baron series by Antony Morton aka John Creasy

Everything from Tolkien

Everything from G.J. Arnaud

Other various books including the Harry Potter series, some of Dan Brown's stuff, a lot of stuff from P.D. James (not all of them though), and much more stuff that I can't remember

Currently reading: David Gibbens (Atlantis, The Last Gospel), Micheal Crichton (Pirate Latitudes), Matthew Pearl (The Poe Shadow)

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As for the older stuff, I rather liked:

-Jane Eyre

-A lot of Shakespeare's stuff, mainly the comedies

-The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

-Catcher in the Rye

-I would have rather liked the Great Gatsby, but the way my school taught it kind of ruined it for me

-Some other stuff that I'm forgetting

On the nonfiction-ish end I'd recommend The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, if you're looking for motivation. Or watch the lecture itself, I think www.cmu.edu has it... somewhere.

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I read a hell of a lot generally. Don't really like watching movies that much; can't stand cinema at all.

Discworld's a staple of mine. I still only have about a third of the entire series, though I've read the entire Night/City Watch subseries. I just don't own Guards, Men at Arms or Thud.

Edited by The Ferret Whisperer
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The heir series seems very interesting...

It is quite good

What is that about?

A high schooler forgot to take his medicine for his heart, and became healthier throughout the day. It does go deeper than that, but I'm afraid to tell spoilers.

Is the Olympians based on Greek Myth?

Mix Greek myth with modern day. It works out really well

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These works I suspect would remain just as personally valuable to me were I to reread them as when I first had the pleasure.

...

Mars trilogy

Just want to say, I'm reading Blue Mars right now and I agree, it's really one of the best sci-fi series I've ever read.

Gentlemen, I give you Ernest Hemingway.

I think you are a great author!

I am shocked and disappointed at the lack of mention of Neil Gaiman in this thread.

I read Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Although it was definitely good, it is similar to Glenn Cook's "Starfishers" series in that I was unable to like it very much out of dislike for the author's interpretation and use of certain deities. I also read most of the Sandman comics. I think they are really excellent, but I'm not really into comics or graphic novels (bechdel's "Fun Home" is the only one on my list) and so I think it made less of an impact on me b/c I wasn't vested in the genre. But I admit I may not be the best reader for his material.

He did help Susannah Clarke (one of my favorites) get published, and he's a big fan (and I think friend) of Gene Wolfe. His comment on Gene Wolfe ("Gene Wolfe is the smartest, subtlest, most dangerous writer alive today, in genre or out of it") is probably the most recurring blurb on Gene Wolfe's works nowadays. Starwater Strains features it on the cover and I think that the Latro omnibus does too. He also co-wrote Good Omens w/ Terry Pratchett, another favorite of mine.

I also want to throw in my support of Pride and Prejudice, which is randomly shatted on at times for reasons I don't fully grasp (the main character is a woman who is not dressed in tight black leather?)

My favorite series: The Abridged Ernest Hemmingway by Le Communard!

Some other stuff I like a ton:

-Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susannah Clarke (and her book of short stories).

-The "Requiem for Broken God" series by David Zindell

-Gene Wolfe's works. My name comes from his most famous set of novels, "The Book of the New Sun", but my favorite works by him are The Fifth Head of Cerberus and the "Latro in the Mist" series.

-Alison Bechdel's "Fun Home"

-Shakespeare's Sonnets

-Stephen R Donaldson's "The Land" and "The Gap" books.

-Burton G Malkiel's "A Random Walk Down Wall Street"

-Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series (pentology?) and the associated short stories.

-Steven Erikson's "Malazan Book of the Fallen

-Ian Macleod's "Learning the World" (blogging about colonization of alien planets? cool!)

-Joyce's Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man. Not trying to be pretentious, I honestly think this is incredible and I got something out of it.

-R Scott Bakker's Earwa series (Prince of Nothing trilogy and currently unfolding "Great Ordeal" trilogy)

-Jean Toomer's "Cane"

-John Barth's "Chimera" and "The Sot-Weed Factor".

-Jack Vance's "Demon Princes" and "Araminta Station" (NOT its sequels in the Cadwal Chronicle, only the first book is excellent)

-Ursula K Leguin's "Earthsea" books

-Cecilia Holland's "Until the Sun Falls" and "Kings in Winter"

-Liaquat Ahamed's "Lords of Finance"

-Mervyn Peake's "Gormenghast" series (unfinished forever)

-ER Eddison's "The Worm Ouroboros"

-Sima Qian's "Shi Ji" (what I read of it - only the part amazon sells as "Records of the Grand Historian: Han Dynasty I")

-Richard Wright's "Black Boy, or American Hunger" and "The Outsider"

-The Collected Fictions of Jorge Luis Borges. I'd probably like any other stories or essays by him, but that's all I've read.

+On that note, I also really prefer Pierre Menard's "Don Quixote" to the original.

Borges' review:

It is a revelation to compare the Don Quixote of Pierre Menard with that of Miguel de Cervantes. Cervantes, for example, wrote the following (Part I, Chapter IX):
...truth, whose mother is history, rival of time, depository of deeds, witness of the past, exemplar and adviser to the present, and the future's counselor.

This catalog of attributes, written in the seventeenth century, and written by the "ingenious layman" Miguel de Cervantes, is mere rhetorical praise of history. Menard, on the other hand, writes:

...truth, whose mother is history, rival of time, depository of deeds, witness of the past, exemplar and adviser to the present, and the future's counselor.

History, the mother of truth!- the idea is staggering. Menard, a contemporary of William James, defines history not as delving into reality but as the very fount of reality. Historical truth, for Menard, is not "what happened"; it is what we believe happened. The final phrases - exemplar and adviser to the present, and the future's counselor - are brazenly pragmatic.

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I also want to throw in my support of Pride and Prejudice, which is randomly shatted on at times for reasons I don't fully grasp (the main character is a woman who is not dressed in tight black leather?)

-Joyce's Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man. Not trying to be pretentious, I honestly think this is incredible and I got something out of it.

Yeah, I don't understand the hate it gets, but oh well.

As for Joyce, don't worry bro, I grew up with a father who's favorite book of all time is Ulysses.

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Oh good lord James Joyce. I read Portrait. Right, it had some value, but I did. Not. Like it. I've only read excerpts of Ulysses. I plan on keeping it that way.

I'm all for deep meaning and everything, I just like my books at least slightly comprehensible.

Pshaw. They're not even that crazy. Try reading Finnegans Wake. I dare you.

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