Way Way Off Topic: Favorite Books/Series

[millersw.628]

Alright we have a solid collection of people around here who seem to also love nerdy thing. I absolutely love reading and am always looking for recommendations and I’m always trying to coerce people into reading what I’ve read. Here’s the short list of my favorites(in no particular order except Dresden who is at the top always):

1. The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
2. Codex Alera - Jim Butcher
3. Cinderspires - Jim Butcher
4. Kingkiller Chronicles - Patrick Rothfus
5. Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson
6. Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson
7. Sword of Truth series - Terry Goodkind (except for like book 8 which bored me to tears, but if you power through it the last 4 are worth it)
8. Night Angel series - Brent Weeks
9. Lightbringer series - Brent Weeks

I could go on but I promised the short list. Lay it on me what else do I need to read!

[julybighouse]

oh this is one that I can definitely add to:

1. Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
2. The Rowan Series - Anne McCaffrey
3. Brain and Brawn Series - Anne McCaffrey
4. Talent Series - Anne McCaffrey
5. Acorna Series - Anne McCaffrey
6. Crystal Singer Series - Anne McCaffrey
7. Greenrider Series - Kristen Britain
8. Valdemar Series (Any and All of them!) - Mercedes Lackey

[millersw.628]

I sense a theme lol. I love the few things I’ve read of Mercedes Lackey. Anne I’ve seen on shelves but never stopped to pick up but I’ll remember

[paulw]

Pratchett.
Eddie Drood (and Nightside) – Simon Green
Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
(I’ve read and like most of Dresden, only read Sanderson’s Librarians series)

I also read a bunch of stuff off Gutenberg, because it’s easy to get on phone/tablet. So:
Dorothy Sayers
R. Austin Freeman

And my not-so-secret vice when my brain is fried, because it says a lot about american self-understanding that’s still useful: Horatio Alger.

[Dunfee]

I couldn’t list my favorite authors. I have too many of them!

I’ve recently been listening to the audio book versions of Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series.
They’re so good!

[millersw.628]

They’re incredible. Aside from the one. But seriously the last 3? I read basically non stop. I lost weight. And sleep. I couldn’t put them down. Brace yourself

[julybighouse]

HUGE fan of Anne McCaffrey, I have a LOT of Sci-fi books but my Anne McCaffrey collection takes up two shelves. Mercedes Lackey is my second favorite and her books take up only one shelf. Kristen Britain doesn’t have the proliferation of books that Anne and Mercedes have, and it takes her a LONG time to publish the next book in her Greenrider series.

[Jules]

Oh holy cow…you have to read some Anne McCaffrey if you haven’t done it! She and Mercedes Lackey are two of the authors that I have read everything they’ve written, and I wait like a fiend for the next offering!

Highly recommend you start with Dragonflight. (McCaffrey)
If you’re a musician - Crystal Singer (McCaffrey)
If you’re into extra curricular abilities - To Ride Pegasus (McCaffrey)

Each of those is the first book in a series (two, three or many more) and you will not want to come out.

Mercedes Lackey

Joust (start of a series)
Foundation (start of series)
To Catch a Thief

There are so, so many. I’m not wild about her latest endeavor to rewrite fables and fairytales though. They’re not bad but written more as stand alone books for youngsters.

[Dunfee]

Which one? I’m about half way through Naked Empire now

[kennethclapp]

Have to start wth

• Tolkien
• C.S. Lewis
• David Eddings: Belgariad and Malorian series
• David Eddings: Elenium and Tamuli series
• Simon Green: Nightside series
• Jim Butcher: Codex Algeria
• J.K Rowling: Harry Potter series (though There’s serious over exposure now, the first ti,e reading them through was exceptional.

[millersw.628]

I’m reading the synopses to try to remember. There’s one where he spends all his time in the library and then just wanders off and fixes the problem without any effort. I thought. But chain fire and on is the most engaging triplet of the series and you’re almost there

[julybighouse]

@Jules…I have never liked you more than I do right now!

Did you ever get the chance to meet Anne before she passed away? I finally got to meet her at Dragon Con the last time she got to visit the states. I stood in line for about 2 hours to get her signature on a copy of Dragonflight, there were so many people that not all were able to get to see her (she also wasn’t doing well physically at the time).

Now, if I can ever get a chance to visit Dragonhold-underhill, that would be an amazing adventure.

[ben1]

I will add the Iron Druid series - Kevin Hearne. Fun books with a different view on the old gods.

[millersw.628]

Excellent. Really the problem I have is when I get hooked on books i have to consume them all. Thank god for the kindle. 1000+ books all in one place. I intend to fill it up

[millersw.628]

I have read most of those I forgot to add them! They are awesome I can’t actually remember where I left them off but I need to wander back to them

[Tom_A]

I’m, honestly, not a big reader so I don’t have much to offer.

However I have gone through the entire Ender’s Game series (Orson Scott Card) up until the 3 most-recent prequel books. I have them and they’re next on my list though. The series varies from “amazing” to “this guy’s clearly off his meds and not in a good way.” But, overall, the series is great.

I’m currently finishing up Ready Player One (Ernest Cline). It’s one of the most fun books I’ve read in a long time. Although I wonder if you have to be “of a certain age” to fully enjoy it. It’s FULL of 1980’s references. Movies, music, TV, computers. Not just references. But idiosyncrasies. The author either really remembers the '80s in glorious detail, or really did his homework before he wrote the book. Sure, you’ve got the John Hughes, Family Ties, Rush, and Atari 2600 mentions. All good stuff. But when he mentioned having to adjust the volume just right on the tape deck to get his applications to load and save properly on the TRS-80 CoCo, that just made my face light up. And the book’s full of things like that.

• Tom

[Jules]

Oh you met her? Now I’m jealous!

[millersw.628]

I thuroughly enjoyed Ready Player 1 even though I missed being a part of the 80s by 6 months. Did I have to google a couple things while reading? Yes. But it was totally worth the read

[pdobrien]

His follow-up novel “Armada” is pretty good too. Especially if you never watched The Last Starfighter as a kid. (If you have watched The Last Starfighter then the plot might seem very familiar…)

[julybighouse]

When I get home I need to see if I can get a picture of her signature on my book. I’m actually really proud of that one. I’ve never waited for anyone else’s signature before.