Ashman's Amazon Cart

I can only do audio books. I find they go great with Final Fantasy XI. Honestly, I've had the music turned off in that game for years now. I only keep the sounds because I need to be able to hear if something aggros. I'm listening to this atm:



Hey. You said mostly anything but detective stories and westerns. PM me and I can e-mail you the whole thing. It's 153 MB, but if you use GMail, that's a drop in the bucket.

If you use bit torrent, I'm know you can find tons of audio books though. You mentioned Harry Potter. Now while I wouldn't have went out, paid money, and sat down and read them all, I did get to listen to them all being read by this wonderful voice actor. That was quite an enjoyable month.

I'll say again, honestly audio books and FFXI go perfect together.

Hi Ashman, you said in a previous post you disliked detective novels, I view them in the same regard but I would like to recommend "Altered Carbon" by Richard K. Morgan. It's a cyberpunk/sci-fi murder detective story, with a well written protagonist and does a great job of keeping you guessing.

Oh and I'd also like to second the "American Gods" recommendation and it's spin off "Anansi Boys".

The Ravenloft Chronicles are a really good series. A friend of mine got me hooked. I Strahd is an excellent place to start. They're a little hard to find though but it's been noted that they're slowly being republished. ( '-')b

These books are simply amazing. They leave much to the imagination and you want more and more. Rothfuss doesn't get bogged down in over description and the stories have so many different directions they could head. I cannot wait for the third one next spring!

For whoever reccomended "Magician" By Raymond E. Feist, I'm going to one-up them by suggesting you ignore the abridged volume titled "Magician" and read "Magician: Apprentice" and "Magician: Master"; two volumes, non-abridged and the author's preferred edition. The following Feist books are also highly reccomended (already mentioned: Silverthorne and A Darkness at Sethanon).

After that, the following books fall off a bit. Still very good for a while and I still enjoyed them very much, but at some point I stopped reading his new offerings because they just weren't doing it for me anymore. The Riftwar Saga (as Magician/Silverthorne/Darkness) are called are definitely the best. The interim books (Prince of the Blood, King's Buccaneer) are good stuff too. After that, the Serpentwar stuff comes in that I enjoyed, but not to the same degree...and I stopped reading after that because I just found what he did with his characters quite distasteful.

But Don't let that turn you off to AT LEAST the Riftwar stuff, because it's really, really great fantasy. Truly wonderful stuff.

You could always go with classic literature...

I've only mentioned this to people a thousand times. Erm... Nabokov. His work is fun.

Great series.

also- RA Salvatore the Drizzt series.
Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman's Dragonlance Chronicles.
David Gerald War against the Chtorr, A matter for Men.

Feist aside, here are some more suggestions of mine with less critical review:

- The collected works of H.P. Lovecraft (already mentioned, but deserves another vote). I've always considered Lovecraft to be the Twilight Zone of literature; filling your mind with thoughts of what MIGHT be out there in the unknown. And in his time, the unknowns of the world were decidely more numerous.

- Robert E. Howard -- creator of Conan. The Conan of his stories is far, far more than the hulking brute of the films and comics. Very worthy read.

- Jim Butcher -- The Dresden novels (Storm Front being the first and moving on from there) are really great cotemporary writing. Taking place in modern Chicago, they combine magic elements along with detective and noir elements. I know you said as a genre you dislike detective novels, but this is very much worth your time, I think. Think Harry Potter for adults. Sort of. But way better. There was a brief television series as well that sadly did not gain traction. But also worth watching.

- The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe -- non-fiction stuff. It's about the American test pilots who flew the jets and rockets and who eventually because America's first astronauts. If you have even a sliver of interest in our space program it's a must-read.

- J.R.R. Tolkien -- The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion -- blatantly obvious and you've most likely read it/them (except maybe the Sil) but in this day and age I refuse to let it go without mention; too many people consider Harry Potter to be the penultimate British literature regarding wizards and that is a heinous black mark upon our generation.

- Wilbur Smith -- Birds of Prey, Monsoon, etc. -- Wilbur Smith writes a wide range of things. I've not read his Egyptian-based historical fiction, but the novels I mentioned above and their sequels, as well as those he's written set in modern Africa, are great works of historical fiction that often pull from real-life events. They're in many ways romance novels for men. A lot of feminists really despise him. All the more reason to read him for me. High seas adventure, hunting big game, that kind of stuff. And a lot of political intrigue in his more modern-era novels.

The only one I've read of his (no idea what it's called sorry), was about elephant poaching and strip mining. While all fiction, he writes about some very real stuff. Was years ago that I read it, but certainly worth picking up.

Also didn't know that about Magician, I read my mum's copy that she's probably had longer than me lol.

Wilbur Smith writes almost exclusively about Africa in various centuries (and England interspersed) because he himself is a white African of British descent. The ancient Egyptian and high seas stuff is entirely fictitious using real places as a backdrop.

The modern-era works he's written are things he's lived with or around or heard about largely from first-hand sources. They're a ficticious account of many of Africa's major shakeups throughtout the 20th century. Again, while it's all largely fictitious, it draws from very real topics and issues. I really can't reccomend him highly enough. It's romanticized and dramatized and not entirely politically correct. But it's great stuff.

I'm reading every post here but I didn't wanna keep spamming stuff on the thread :3 I consider every post here and I will most likely buy most of these books at the rate i read (i donate the ones i don't care to ever read again).

I read and thoroughly enjoyed the hobbit/trilogy. The hobbit (and the amazing animated films) were part of what made me love reading.

HOWEVER, I skip the last half of the third book in trilogy every time i re-read it. It's like filler in an anime to me. I got the impression (i don't recall from where) that the silmarillion was similar in being "drier" than the other books. Is this true? I like some of the "filler" stuff in tolkien like Beorn (and I enjoy Bombadil but you can see why he was cut from the films) but I enjoy the "fancy" part of fantasy. The light hearted "chip the plates" etc and the questing, while amazing reads, is less my style.

opinion?

Ash you don't need to read when you can talk to me on Guildworks all day :3 <3

The Silmarillion reads like the Bible. But more...epic. It's the Bible upon which you wish you'd been raised. Or at least, that's how I feel about it.

It's the story of the shaping of Eä and the history of its peoples. It is very dry. It's difficult to read in a few sittings. It is not a page-turner.

You also need to keep in mind it wasn't published during J.R.R.T.'s lifetime. It was compelated and edited by his son Christopher. Tolkien was frequently long-winded at times with his writing and his son certainly didn't detract from that at all. (Edit: also, due to Christopher's efforts in publishing under deadlines and pressure from fans, some aspects are not considered "canon" within the realms of Tolkien's works with much deeper details and possibilities described in the History of Middle Earth series.)

It gives you an idea of who some of the characters referred to in LOTR actually are. It explains who the wizards are and from whence they came and why they're in Middle Earth in the first place.

It's a slow read, but if you enjoy Tolkien's world, I think it's an essential one.

It could just be that I was quite literally raised with Tolkien as the standard of masterful fiction, but I've always considered his works to be something greater than simple entertainment (not that there's ANYTHING wrong with literature as entertainment). Writing is an artform. Like comparing Verdi to Queen. The later is absolutely wonderful and you can listen to lightly. The former is fairly epic at times and requires repeated listening and perhaps even some contemplation to really enjoy and appreciate.

Shogun is an amazing book, GaiJin is only ok at best, compared to Shogun. It's still a good read, and a longish book, but if you're expecting Shogun, you might be disappointed. Of Clavelle's books, I'd order them Shogun > Noble House > Tai Pan > King Rat > Gai Jin.

A series of short books that I really enjoyed is the Wool series by Hugh Howey. You can get them books 1-5 packaged up as the Wool Omnibus, don't forget book 6, First Shift. Wool Omnibus won Amazon's Indie Book of the Year award. I, Zombie was also really good.

Another one I love is Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. If you grew up in the 80's, it's even better. Lots of 80's pop culture references set in a semi-dystopian near future revolving around a fully immersive MMO.

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson was an interesting read, one that Ernest Cline said he pulled some inspiration from, but written almost 20 years before Cline wrote Ready Player One.

I also liked John Scalzi's Old Man's War and the sequels and his book The Android's Dream.

The Ender books by Orson Scott Card were good, I read the first 3 or 4, don't remember how many. Not omgsuperfantastic, but still worth a read.

Geekomancy by Michael R Underwood was a neat book.

Aww, I'd like to contribute but I'm honestly having a hard time thinking of books I read that a teen could read. By that I mean they have stuff that goes outside of PG-13 type content, lol.

Sword of Truth has already been recommended but I'll add this: not reading it would be the single worst choice a human being can make.

That aside, if you're interested in Japan, here are some novels I that were in English that I read back when I was doing my undergard in Japanese back in the day and thought were really cool:

After Dark by Haruki Marukami
Naomi by Junichiro Tanizaki
Black Rain by Masuji Ibuse

They're all pretty short and probably quite a bit different than stuff you normally read. That last part was a big draw for me; they offer interesting new writing styles and perspectives on things.

Oh also pretty much anything by David Eddings. The Belgariad, The Mallorean, The Elenium, etc. They're all in that fantasy Harry Potteresque wheelhouse that you indicated you like. The series may seem long in terms of number of books but it's the kind of thing you'll tear through pretty quick.

Debt of bones its really short. Doesn't add much to the story, only when the Boundary was raised.
Law of the Nines you don't need to read The Sword of Truth to enjoy it, though it makes it infinitely better.

Fair warning for the Sword of Truth series, you will either love or hate them. There's almost no middle ground. Personally, not a fan.

The Amber books (Zelazny) fit your described bill pretty well, very good series. You can get the original 10 in an omnibus edition titled "The Great Book of Amber", and there's a few other short stories set in that universe. He died with the series seemingly incomplete; I believe another author took a stab at the series a few years back but I've not read their books. Some other recommendations in that vein that I haven't seen mentioned would be the Bartimaeus trilogy (Stroud), the Night Angel trilogy (Weeks), the Tears of Artamon trilogy (Ash) and related works, and the Black Magician trilogy (Canavan). Tears of Artamon in particular is a series I'm rather fond of, interesting setting and a fresh concept.

Outside that vein, let's see... Simon R. Green has a few different series in settings ranging from scifi to fantasy that are pretty light and fun reads. The Nightside series is probably my favorite by him (fantasy, lots of dark humor), but there is a pulp fiction P.I. flavor to it and you've stated your distaste for that. The Deathstalker books might be a better choice. The Book of the New Sun (Wolfe) is excellent if somewhat dry, and he wrote a few more books set in the same universe if it catches your interest. Iain M. Bank's Culture novels are fantastic.

EDIT: Almost forgot to mention Greg Bear. He's written quite a few books, mostly scifi, all very good.

The book I have on my desk at the moment is "Pacification in Algeria: 1956 - 1958" by David Galula.

I missed if we were supposed to keep this PG-13.

Wilbur Smith is out if so.

Jim Butcher probably straddles the PG-13/R rating.

The Neverending Story by Michael Ende is a surprisingly sophisticated read for a children's novel. It's been a favorite of mine since I read it at a ripe young age. It's one of those I still pull off the shelf and re-read every few years.

He said something a teen could read but still stimulating to an adult, that's what I was going off of. :p

Sword of Truth will not disappoint you. I read each of them in 3~5 days each, in the middle of video games, FFXI included I would stop to read them, so good.

to clarify i didn't mean teen books as in tame... i meant "i have a lot of heavy reading and i want something simple". Im taking all this stuff in stride and added a lot to this weeks cart that I probably should have saved for next run :x

I enjoy sex/violence/vulgarity as much as the next guy. I just don't always want to read it with 12 syllable words and have it carry on for 14 obnoxiously descript pages ;3

also- RA Salvatore the Drizzt series.
Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman's Dragonlance Chronicles.
David Gerald War against the Chtorr, A matter for Men.[/quote]


Super awesome books as well.

Terry Pratchett, anything from the discworld series. Light fantasy mixed with some form of modernism and witful comedy. Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy comedy meets lord of the rings fantasy.

Sorry if these have been posted, and if they don't fit exactly into your genre, but easy to read books I would recommend to anyone:

- The Stand (Stephen King)

- The Walking Drum (Louis L'Amour [Not a Western!])

- The Courtship of Princess Leia (Dave Wolverton)

- Timeline (Michael Crichton, honestly I would recommend most Crichton
books).

Cassandra Palmer series by Karen Chance

Sunshine by Robin McKinley

Almost anything by John Saul! :3