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Favorite Books?

The one book i've bought as a gift countless times and heard nothing but praise:

Orson Scott Card: 'Ender's Game'

Fantastic book. The rest of the Ender's series slowed down some, but the Bean saga after was epic. I haven't read all the additionals written since the 4th Bean book.

Funny too a few years after I read Ender's game the Harry Potter books came out and frankly I thought the 'Battleschool' in Ender's Game was far far superior to 'Hogwarts' in the Potter books.

Edit:



Agreed!

Ender's game, to me, is Epic Sci-Fi.

Agreed!! Just re-read it couple months ago and was still as good as ever. Was gonna read some more of the series but there are so many it is kind of confusing... i had heard that there was an actual sequel finally put out recently which is what convinced me to re-read it. Course i can't figure out which is which in the time line, lol
 
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NightAngel -

The second Ender book is Speaker for the Dead and although different in tone, is as good as Ender's Game IMO. The others vary from good to eh.

The other Card series I really liked was the Alvin Maker books. The first in the series is Seventh Son Amazon.com: Seventh Son (Tales of Alvin Maker, Book 1) Orson Scott Card I'd recommend them for whatever that's worth...
 
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NightAngel -

The second Ender book is Speaker for the Dead and although different in tone, is as good as Ender's Game IMO. The others vary from good to eh.

The other Card series I really liked was the Alvin Maker books. The first in the series is Seventh Son Amazon.com: Seventh Son (Tales of Alvin Maker, Book 1) Orson Scott Card I'd recommend them for whatever that's worth...

But from what i hear there were a bunch of other books in series but not all of them were 'true' sequels. Was supposed to be one released in past year or something
 
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But from what i hear there were a bunch of other books in series but not all of them were 'true' sequels. Was supposed to be one released in past year or something

Yeah, that's right. The original series is Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide and Children of the Mind. The Shadow series (Ender's Shadow, Shadow Puppets etc.) is a roughly parallel series to the first, but from Bean's (one of the other Battle school kids) point of view. It's not bad, (I read the first 3) but after the 1st one I wasn't wowed.

There also are some young adult ones too, I think. Not sure as I haven't read any of them.
 
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Yeah, that's right. The original series is Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide and Children of the Mind. The Shadow series (Ender's Shadow, Shadow Puppets etc.) is a roughly parallel series to the first, but from Bean's (one of the other Battle school kids) point of view. It's not bad, (I read the first 3) but after the 1st one I wasn't wowed.

There also are some young adult ones too, I think. Not sure as I haven't read any of them.
Bean was cool, lol.
Naw but i heard recently there was a continuation to Ender's story... that series is so f'ed i don't even want get into it and mess with them
 
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Ah, you must be referring to Ender in Exile. It seems to take place between Ender's Game & Speaker although written after both. Don't know what to tell you about that one - Haven't read it. I've been off OSC for quite a while now...

Think your right... that is the one i'm thinking about. Might jump back into it eventually... maybe
 
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well this is what i am reading Oedipus Rex and Antigone

Oedipus, awesome.

This reminds me of one of my favorite movies and it incidentally ties in with the mention of World War Z.

History of the World, Part 1: My favorite Mel Brooks movie. There is a scene where the main characters are running from the romans, and round to corner to see a old man with a cup saying: "Give to Oedipus"

Jocephus looks at him, slaps him 5 and says' " Hey what's hapenin' Melonfarmer!

favorite line and I have to explain it to over half the people that watch the movie with me.
/hijack
 
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Ah, you must be referring to Ender in Exile. It seems to take place between Ender's Game & Speaker although written after both. Don't know what to tell you about that one - Haven't read it. I've been off OSC for quite a while now...

Ender in Exile is the one I haven't read.

If you're not going to read through all the books I definetly recommend Ender's Shadow (the first of the Bean series).

As a large chunk of it is like reading Ender's Game from a completely different perspective.
 
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One of my favorite books is "The Tracker" by Tom Brown Jr. This book is a real classic which every American should read. Tom Brown, the author, was trained as a child by a Native American Elder to be a tracker. In this book, Tom Brown describes his tracking adventures. The detailed descriptions of North American Wildlife are really inspiring for any nature lover.
 
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"The Frontiersmen" by Alan Eckert, also "Wilderness Empire" and "Blue Jacket" by the same author
-All three are about the expansion through america's wilderness and native american lands. The author studied letters, diaries, newspapers, gvt. records, etc. of the time and compiled it into a narrative.

as you can see, I mostly like nonfiction :)

Thanks for the detailed reading list. This particular book looks like something, which I would enjoy, reading. I've already put it on my wish list. Like you, I also prefer to read non-fiction. My timetable doesn't allow for going out and exploring nature too often. So reading these types of books let my imagination take me on a nature trip instead.
 
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One of my favorite books is "The Tracker" by Tom Brown Jr. This book is a real classic which every American should read. Tom Brown, the author, was trained as a child by a Native American Elder to be a tracker. In this book, Tom Brown describes his tracking adventures. The detailed descriptions of North American Wildlife are really inspiring for any nature lover.

Thanks for the detailed reading list. This particular book looks like something, which I would enjoy, reading. I've already put it on my wish list. Like you, I also prefer to read non-fiction. My timetable doesn't allow for going out and exploring nature too often. So reading these types of books let my imagination take me on a nature trip instead.

Not nitpicking but is your font getting smaller and smaller?? Is it just me??:D
 
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I have a fairly diverse list of favourites I lean on when asked:

- Sandy Koufax: Jane Leavy - Beautifully written autobiography of Koufax's career structured through his 4th no-hitter and his first perfect game against the Chicago Cubs in the twilight of his career.
- The Stranger (The Outsider): Albert Camus - Perhaps the finest philosophical novella ever written in the 20th Century. Personally, I identify with much of what Camus endorsed (Absurdism), but it's a difficult mindset to live with.
- Watchmen - An incredibly addictive graphic novel that has me going back to the start to read it again. I believe it made the Time's 100 list as well.

Currently reading school-related stuff lol
 
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Off the top of my head I'd recommend 'Common Sense' by Tom Paine 'Anthem', 'Fountainhead', and 'Atlas Shrugged' by Ayn Rand '1984' by George Orwell The Complete 'Left Behind' series The Complete 'Lord of the Rings' series (including 'The Hobbit' The Complete 'Harry Potter' series Dante's 'Divine Comedy' (though I must admit I stopped after Inferno, and never picked it up again, I need to) the 'Cthulhu Mythos' books by H.P. Lovecraft I could go forever lol
 
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I like the Weird Tales big three - Robert E Howard, H P Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith. I also like some of the authors who influenced them and authors who worked the same markets as them.

C L Moore, Henry Kuttner, Manly Wade Wellman, Arthur Machen, William Hope Hodgson, Ambrose Bierce, H Rider Haggard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Abraham Merritt, blah blah blah.

Also most of Philip K Dicks output.

What I do not like is multi-volume 1000 page tome series. That is why I do not read modern fantasy.
 
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Agreed!! Just re-read it couple months ago and was still as good as ever. Was gonna read some more of the series but there are so many it is kind of confusing... i had heard that there was an actual sequel finally put out recently which is what convinced me to re-read it. Course i can't figure out which is which in the time line, lol
I re-read Ender's Game a couple of weeks ago. Awesome!

To each his own but the rest of the Ender series goes downhill imo. I only recommend the first book to people.
 
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