Book Recommendation Thread

by **Venexis** » September 28th, 2014, 1:50 pm

Can't believe something like this doesn't already exist.

Read a good book? Share it here. Feel free to leave comments, suggestions and reviews but try to keep spoilers to a minimum- other people may want to check it out for themselves.

Also, log of the old Bookclub Discord Channel is here.

by **Venexis** » December 14th, 2014, 11:02 pm

Damn guys, 56 views and not a single response? Your reading game is weak.

Anyway, I've recently picked up Maze Runner at my brother's recommendation. Kinda ruined the plot of the first book for myself by seeing the movie, but if anything it just make reading it more tense. Just finished the second (Scorch Trials) and am now starting on the third (Death Cure). Not really my usual reading but it's pretty hardcore, does a great job of making you wait (sometimes an obscenely long time) to figure out the significance of things- not that it's a bad thing, just makes you wanna read more. Went in expecting a rather lackluster series, was pleasantly surprised when it far exceeded my expectations. Would recommend.

Now for real get posting things, it's lonely in here.

by **Supershroom** » December 15th, 2014, 12:10 am

I read books but they're all German and I don't know which ones have been translated and are well-known and which ones aren't. Except from probably...

The letter for the king by Dutch authoress Tonke Draght

pure medieval epicness

by **Oranjui** » December 24th, 2014, 9:51 am

Uh well if you're gonna hang around the internet much longer, you should check out the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 'trilogy' at some point, if you haven't already.

Otherwise I recommend the His Dark Materials actual trilogy (which I read like 8 years ago so I don't remember it much, but MK also said it was good), also maybe like 1984, and oh Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! was good, some other stuff

by **Oranjui** » May 21st, 2016, 8:14 pm

I recently read a bunch of books that weren't required reading for school for once (the year is basically over now because APs are done so I'm not flooded with schoolwork constantly anymore, also because of this) so here's some reviews. Also I'll probably add the ones I had to read for school too, just because why not.

For school in the past nine or so months:

How To Read Literature Like A Professor - Thomas C Foster. I think I mentioned this at the start of the thread or something? Seems like this is a pretty standard book to read for English classes or something now. I didn't expect to like it as much as I did, even if it wasn't a super enthralling read. There was definitely some humour and playfulness in the book. I think reading it definitely helped me see stuff in a different light, so if you're into classic literature, this might be helpful to read.
Othello - William Shakespeare. Probably not my favourite Shakespeare, but Iago is a 10/10 character. Pretty good, would recommend if you're into Shakespeare and haven't read this yet.
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley. Aaaaaaaaaaaa this was so good. The ending was a little weird, but overall I loved the style, the themes, the plot, the characters, everything. Probably one of my all-time favourite books now.
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad. It was interesting enough to keep me going, but something it felt a bit bland and difficult to slog through just because it was so slow-paced, and sometimes a little bit confusing. But it's not a bad book, either.
Oedipus Rex - Sophocles. Kind of a short play but it was pretty not bad. I dunno what to say about it other than that I liked it.
Hamlet - William Shakespeare. Obviously a classic. If you haven't read it for school already, you probably either will sooner or later, or you need to read it on your own time. There are so many references to it in modern culture that I'm kind of surprised I got along without having read it for so long. But anyway, I enjoyed it. Even though I've enjoyed pretty much every Shakespeare play I've read so far, which probably says something about my personal biases. :p
The Awakening - Kate Chopin. The original feminist novel???? I dunno. The plot was a little awkward at time, but the character development was phenomenal and the themes were interesting too. Honestly it even seemed a little trippy in some parts somehow. Anyway, I liked it, but not exactly a must-read unless you're really into the history of the women's rights movement or something.
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway. Really short, but classic Hemingway style. Like three-quarters of the class complained about it being really boring and dull, but there were some of us who thought it was more interesting than just the surface reading (holy ♥♥♥♥ that sounded really pretentious didn't it). I wouldn't really recommend it unless you already know that you like Hemingway (For Whom The Bell Tolls was the first book I read by him and it was pretty good I thought, but it's definitely not the most famous), because otherwise you probably are not going to enjoy the experience.
A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens. Probably one of my favourite books we read for class this year. The diction and syntax is kind of difficult/high-level (because that's just kind of Dickensian style), but the plot was cool and the characters were neat. I'd recommend it if you're not afraid of something more on the challenging end in terms of literally reading it and understanding wtf Dickens is trying to get across (I spent so much time reading it ugh), and are okay with something heavily revolving around history (the French Revolution in particular).
Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston. Whoa that dialect transliteration was a little bit of an obstacle at first, but overall it was a decent read. It almost seemed more like a three-act play written in prose than a novel, which was interesting. Some aspects of the plot seemed kind of weird but the themes were neato. From reviews and Sparknotes (shut up) it seems like it's often interpreted as a book about racial relations because of its surface value, but the underlying motivation seems like it's more about gender roles and empowering women or something. Iunno. I thought it was good.
Death of a Salesman - Arthur Miller. The style of this book was really cool to me, and the concepts in general were really interesting. This is probably tied with TOTC for my favourite thing we read this year. Also, maybe I'm uncultured or something but I think this is one of the two total modern plays I've read in my life (the other being A Raisin in the Sun I think? we read it last year for school). It was really good and I'd definitely recommend reading it if you haven't read it.
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley. Some cool early scifi/Romantic-era/Gothic stuff going on. The style was pretty cool, and character development was done pretty well for the most part, although Victor still pisses me off because he was literally the most static character created in any media ever. Anyway, this is probably my third favourite of the stuff we've read this year, behind TOTC/DOAS as second best and Brave New World as the best.

On my own time (more to come in the near future probably):

Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut. 16/10, hell the ♥♥♥♥ yeah this is probably my new favourite book, thanks to Bryce for the recommendation. I love the humour, the scatterbrained style, the character development, the plot, the culture/worldbuilding, the philosophy, the everything. I can't say the climax was really very unexpected, but it was written in a way that kept me super enthralled. I don't know what more to say other than man, this was a really great book, and I'd totally recommend it to anyone. It's 100% worth it and I think anybody can probably take something useful/interesting away from it.
Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut. Still on the Vonnegut train, I decided to read this. The atmosphere was a little different from Cat's Cradle, but the dark humour was still up to par, and the same style seemed to be there throughout, though it was presented slightly differently (more literally, maybe?). This book also felt significantly more real and tragic than Cat's Cradle, but I wouldn't necessarily say one is better than the other. I loved them both to death and read them pretty voraciously. It deals a lot with World War 2, so if you're not into history/war much, then maybe this isn't for you, but it's balanced really well with elements of both ordinary human experience as well as a bit of fantasy thrown into the mix. It's described as an antiwar book by a lot of sources. Which it is, because it gets explicitly stated at one point. But that's probably not the first descriptor that comes to mind when I think of the book. Then again I don't really know what would be the first descriptor. Anyway, I'd recommend this if you're into something semi-historical, but still entertaining/unconventional and not obnoxiously informational. Thanks Vonnegut, you da man.
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess. God damn that was ♥♥♥♥ up in parts but this was a really, really interesting read. The unique style was part of what made it so good. None of the reviews I read seemed to mention the specific quirk about it, so I went into reading it completely unsuspecting. It was a bit of a barrier to reading at first, but the more I read, the less weird it and the more insanely immersive it became. I guess you can describe the book overall as a philosophical dystopian crime drama? I don't really know. It was a great read though and I'd recommend it if you're looking for something that plays a lot with language, is semi-philosophical, is heavily emotional, is somewhat unconventionally dystopian, and if you're capable of handling some pretty intense/uncomfortable physical descriptions in certain scenes (i.e. potential trigger warning, or something). Anyway, I liked it a lot, despite feeling a physical urge to just stop reading and scream because of how emotional some parts were. As Roald Dahl apparently said, it's a pretty terrifying and marvelous book. So go read it.
The Maze Runner - James Dashner. Up next?

I have a Goodreads account now too if you care at all.

Also, just for future reference, you guys who speak non-english languages should still recommend good books you've read in those languages even though this is mostly an english-speaking community. Partly because there are probably plenty of other native speakers, as well as learners who might be interested. No real reason not to.

Also² minor news announcement, there's now a #bookclub channel on the Runouw Discord server for us to chat about book recommendations and discuss things we've read. I'm not sure if we're actually going to set up a reading schedule or anything, but it's a possibility. There was some talk about making a Google Doc for it. Just go there and read the chat if you want more juicy details I guess.

by **Doram** » June 4th, 2017, 7:05 pm

Here's the log of the Bookclub Discord Channel, which was shut down due to inactivity, log courtesy of Ven:

Spoiler: show

Book Recommendation Thread

Book Recommendation Thread

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Re: Book Recommendation Thread

Re: Book Recommendation Thread

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