The Count of Monte Cristo
The Dispossessed, The Lathe of Heaven, and The Left Hand of Darkness - by LeGuinn
The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion
Dune
The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis
Stranger in a Strange Land
A more obscure author David Eddings, did a bunch of fantasy series. The Belgirad and the mallorian were two that I’ve read the most but the others are great also.
Also Tolkian. And Harry Potter
All the King’s Men. I like how the different characters grapple with what goodness is and what it means to implement it in the real world. Doesn’t hurt that Penn Warren was also a poet, and his prose reflects that.
The entire series of Culture books by Iain M Banks, they’re just phenomenally written.
Others I’ve reread at least twice:
Frank Herbert’s DUNE series
Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash
The Thievesworld anthology series
Alastair Reynolds House of Suns
William Gibson’s Jackpot books
Neuromancer might be my favourite cyberpunk book of all time but so far Jackpot has failed to hook me.
The appeal is Gibson’s writing, he’s developed a lot in the intervening decades. IMO he’s a much better writer these days than he was at the start of his career. The plot of the Jackpot books might not hook you as much as the sprawl but his writing is great.
Check out Ian McDonald’s River of Gods and Cyberabad Days if you liked Neuromancer, those are in the same vein and exceptionally well imagined. Skip the novella titled Vishnu at the Cat Circus until after River of Gods, it spoils everything set in the India 2047 setting (it’s the last thing in the Cyberabad Days collection.)
I’ve liked the Jackpot series, but I absolutely adore the Sprawl series. I also loved the bridge series.
Currently there is a Humble Bundle with Cory Doctorow’s books. I liked Little Brother and read it twice. Maybe I’m going to read some more of his work.
I’ve been reading his stuff since Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. You’ll definitely enjoy his other books.
I’ve definitely gone through the Harry Potter series a couple of times at different phases of my life. Definitely had a different experience with every reading. Not always positive, but at this point it’s part of the tapestry of my childhood.
at this point it’s part of the tapestry of my childhood.
Mine too. I haven’t read them in a long time because of obvious reasons, but a part of me still wants to. I was truly obsessed with them for several years as a kid.
Don’t let her shitty politics get in the way of doing something you enjoy. Death of the author and all that. If you’re worried about fiscally supporting her, I’m certain you can find the whole series at reasonable prices in any secondhand bookstore.
Or just download ebooks.
The Stand by Steven King. Also, his Gunslinger series.
Ka is a wheel after all
Long days and pleasant nights
Malazan Book of the Fallen, Gentlemen Bastards series, most of Neil Gaiman’s work, The Library at Mount Char, the Baru Cormorant series, Gatsby, Flowers for Algernon, and most of Plath’s work - I go back to most of those every few years.
To Kill A Mockingbird
The trilogy that Silo is based on is really good. Lots of bits you didn’t know the first time thru, so reading again gives a lot more info because you know what’s important.
Only two so far
Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
And
Gone away world
How about Discworld?
I remember when the Guide was my go-to happy place read, and I had not yet discovered Discworld.
I did not believe the hype. Hopefully this person will give it a try, if they have not.
GNU Terry Pratchett.
I had started reading them back in the 90s so it had been over twenty years since I last read them. Decided to reread them all recently. Was a good time.
Yep, have read it, but not more than once.
Pretty much all of Discworld but especially the Moist Von Lipwig and Vimes ones.
The best part of rereading those books is the hidden puns and jokes that you only get when you get older. And yes, commander Vîmes and Moist are excellent characters.
Les Misérables is easily the best book I’ve ever read in my entire life. A few years ago I read a shorthened version of it and even then I was fascinated by it. I finished reading the full text two months ago and oh my fucking god this book is the best thing ever written.
I’m Turkish so I read the Turkish translation (will read the full text in English and French when I learn it) and on the back of it, it says something along these lines:
“… Les Misérables is the third and the most majestic collumn of the author’s novel trilogy that tells of the society…”
And I completely agree with that. This book is simply timeless. The characters, situations, unjustice, inequalities, all the suffering in it could be applied to any society. This book is real.
The messages that it sends are solutions to topics that seemingly anybody with a functioning brain should be capable of thinking and realizing. And yet, these solutions are ignored and refused because of greed, revenge, bloodlust and most important of all, ignorance.
The main character of the book, Jean Valjean is the embodiment of redemption. His entire arc teaches us how to treat criminals. Some countries today are taking these lessons and applying them. The lessons being; treat them as human, rehabilitate them. The result? They actually do heal and return to society as normal human beings.
And yet you see people against this practice. Those kinds of people are blinded by bloodlust and revenge. They are the same kind of people that were racist, sexist and much more back in the day. The arguments that these people bring don’t hold up either. The most common one I see (at least from my perspective) is this:
“You wouldn’t react this way if they hurt one of your loved ones!”
The fact that these people don’t know anything about me aside, this argument is pointless as it implies that I would be blind to fact and logic when I’m in pain. And while that is true, me being angry over an apple falling onto my head won’t make gravity any less real. In other words, so what?
The biggest victims of this mentality are pedofiles. Not the ones that do engage in action. But rather the ones that don’t harm anybody are aware of their issue. For instance, if a non-engaging pedo went to a therapist and told them of their issue, what would the therapist do? Call the police of course. And what would that do? Their life would be pretty screwed from that point forward. Assuming they are the non-engaging type, of course. I don’t believe this to be the correct attitude towards these kind of cases.
I would also like to dive into other topics that the book covers (and perhaps extend on this one) but it would be way too long for a comment. Thank you anyone reading this far. I would like to hear your opinions on the matter and discuss even!
Dang, good job: this is the first time I’m left curious to read it!
Yeah, I’m on board too!
How’s the English translation feel,
I’ve seen the musical a bunch of times and when I finally managed to read it last year it was a revelation. While I still love the musical the book is so much more intriguing and interesting and just manages to much more perfectly capture the main theme.
Night need to re-read this one soon ;)
I read it in high school (by choice because of the musical), but I think I was not mature enough to truly grasp many of the themes.
This makes me want to re-read it. I can read French at an okay level, and I’m wondering if I should try…or if I should stick with English again first to get the major points and then branch out.
English translation is pretty damn good. If you want to work on your French by all means go for it, but wouldn’t do it out of concern you’d be missing something from the English version.
Thanks for letting me know!
I have re-read The Lord of the Rings and all of Larry Niven’s books (many in the Ringworld universe).
Ringworld has the best and worst books in a series I’ve ever read. It still manages to be amazing, even with book 3.
Seconding Lord of the Rings.
Haven’t heard of that one. What’s it about?
Someone gives a relative a stolen ring, and they take it back to where it was from.
