Book recommendations

[LukeB]

Any good books you recommend? I'm into horror/thriller stuff and fantasy novels

I've read all of the harry potter books

[Beso]

Ian rankins rebus collection will last you about a month once you start

[Oliver_W]

I'd always recommend Terry Pratchett's Discworld books for fantasy! Especially ones with Granny Weatherwax and the other witches <3

[Toy Soldier]

If you're looking for relatively easy reads I recommend:

The Stand - Stephen King. Very long, epic in scope, but actually a very casual read so it reads "quickly".

The Beach - Alex Garland. 10x better than the crappy Leo movie and also a very easy read :hee:.


I have other usual recommendations but they're more on the challenging side. I don't know if that's offensive :joker:.

[Oliver_W]

I'd go with Stephen King stuff too, though recommending it seems a bit ... basic? It's like, well duh, of course Stephen King :joker:

I like his prose, I can get lost in his words even when he's yakking on about nothing, like in vast swathes of IT.

His recent one, The Institute, was good. A bit like XMen: New Mutants in a kinda but not really way.

[Crimson Dynamo]

Yep Discworld

[Morgan.]

https://www.snazal.com/images/products/large/image_94216.jpg

[Toy Soldier]

I'd always recommend Terry Pratchett's Discworld books for fantasy! Especially ones with Granny Weatherwax and the other witches <3

I think if you're recommending Discworld you need to be selective about what to offer up as "starter books" because (in my opinion) the earliest ones aren't a good starting place because they aren't the best of the books, but some of the later ones (some of the best ones) are basically unreadable as a standalone read and pretty much require having read earlier books to have a clue what's going on. e.g. I liked "The Fifth Elephant" but it's indecipherable without reading earlier City Watch books. Likewise, Hogfather is one of my favourite reads but (while readable) you have to have read earlier Death books to get the most out of it.

[Smithy]

BLACK WATER LILIES

honestly recommend this to everyone it’s AMAZING

[Oliver_W]

I think if you're recommending Discworld you need to be selective about what to offer up as "starter books" because (in my opinion) the earliest ones aren't a good starting place because they aren't the best of the books, but some of the later ones (some of the best ones) are basically unreadable as a standalone read and pretty much require having read earlier books to have a clue what's going on. e.g. I liked "The Fifth Elephant" but it's indecipherable without reading earlier City Watch books. Likewise, Hogfather is one of my favourite reads but (while readable) you have to have read earlier Death books to get the most out of it.
True! I wouldn't quite say I don't "get" Colour of Magic and Light Fantastic, but ... I prefer the films :laugh: I think those two are very "of the time" and don't have the universal accessibility the later ones do.

The Witch series can be read pretty much in order, with Equal Rites being an optional starting point. ER had shaken the dust off its feet a bit, but the characterisation of Granny and setting of Lancre are both quite different to even Wyrd Sisters. I still love it though.

[Toy Soldier]

I'd go with Stephen King stuff too, though recommending it seems a bit ... basic? It's like, well duh, of course Stephen King :joker:


And yes but we're talking as a step up from Harry Potter... so...

Meh I'll recommend a few of the tougher ones anyway;



Nausea (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nausea_(novel)#Characters) - Jean-Paul Sartre

For some high jinx in existentialism


Journey to Ixtlan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_to_Ixtlan) - Carlos Castaneda

All of the fun of hallucinogenics with none of the risk.


Lanark (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanark:_A_Life_in_Four_Books) - Alasdair Gray

Ever wanted to do all of the drugs? All of the drugs all at the same time? Ever wanted to deliberately give yourself an ocular migraine? Ever wanted to read about people slowly morphing into scaley dragons in an ambiguous afterlife whilst being birthed out of a giant mouth-vagina? This is the book for you!

[Oliver_W]

Nausea (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nausea_(novel)#Characters)[/B] - Jean-Paul Sartre

For some high jinx in existentialism


I have a grudge against him, I spent ages waiting for Superman to show up and save the day in Zarathustra but he never did :fist:

[Daniel.]

Lanark (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanark:_A_Life_in_Four_Books) - Alasdair Gray

Ever wanted to do all of the drugs? All of the drugs all at the same time? Ever wanted to deliberately give yourself an ocular migraine? Ever wanted to read about people slowly morphing into scaley dragons in an ambiguous afterlife whilst being birthed out of a giant mouth-vagina? This is the book for you!

This seems interesting, is it entertaining or just confusing?

[Fetch The Bolt Cutters]

The only book i’ve read in years

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sweetpea-most-unique-gripping-thriller/dp/0008216673/ref=nodl_

[Tom4784]

Song of Achilles is one of my favourite books, I can't say much about it since it needs to be experienced but if you like it, there's another book by the same writer called Circe which is also excellent. I can't recommend both enough.

[Toy Soldier]

This seems interesting, is it entertaining or just confusing?It's both in all honesty. It's divided into 4 parts parts 1 and 4 are surreal as **** (set in some sort of twisted afterlife) and parts 2 and 3 (in the protagonist's actual life) read like a normal book. It's bizarre but it's stuck with me for decades.

[bots]

Terry Brooks - the Shannara series

Frank Herbert - Dune series

[Ammi]

...I’m not generally a reader of horror/fantasy but I did always enjoy Peter Benchley novels...obviously Jaws is the most well known one ...I think that Ben did a thread on the Dark Towers books as well at one time...I know that my son read those and loved them...

[Ammi]

...oh I read The Woman in Black as well and that was really scary...

[Tony Montana]

Cirque du Freak

Of Mice and Men

I loved reading these back in secondary school.

[LukeB]

thanks for the suggestions! going to take a look at these

I just ordered IT book so I'm going to attempt to read that

[Tom4784]

IT is.... a lot.

Most of the story is good and interesting enough but then Stephen King just crawls up his own arse with it and there's one scene which is just so out of the blue and completely gross that it just lessened the book for me. IT Chapter 1 is a better version of the story than the actual book, I thought. Chapter 2 less so but then the adult half of the story is where it mostly falls apart in the book anyway.

[LukeB]

IT is.... a lot.

Most of the story is good and interesting enough but then Stephen King just crawls up his own arse with it and there's one scene which is just so out of the blue and completely gross that it just lessened the book for me. IT Chapter 1 is a better version of the story than the actual book, I thought. Chapter 2 less so but then the adult half of the story is where it mostly falls apart in the book anyway.

Always wanted to read it and because it's so big I decided to get it out the way.

Is the gross thing about the child orgy?

[Niamh.]

IT is.... a lot.

Most of the story is good and interesting enough but then Stephen King just crawls up his own arse with it and there's one scene which is just so out of the blue and completely gross that it just lessened the book for me. IT Chapter 1 is a better version of the story than the actual book, I thought. Chapter 2 less so but then the adult half of the story is where it mostly falls apart in the book anyway.

Yeah really put me off Stephen King actually and I was a fan

[Nicky91]

any of the Jurassic Park novels are a good read i guess

[Barry.]

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51rXnLSV0hL._SX382_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

You’ll love it. Tells you about every movie minus the remake.

[Tom4784]

Always wanted to read it and because it's so big I decided to get it out the way.

Is the gross thing about the child orgy?

Yeah, it's ****ing awful.

[Oliver_W]

The child orgy was obviously gross, especially with how much detail he goes into with the anatomical descriptions etc.

That said, it's clear why it happened - the supernatural bond between them had been diminished with ITs defeat, and they needed to rebuild it so they could get out of the sewers, and do so without running into the now completely deranged Henry. So the storybeat is a fair one, but should have been hit in a different way.
The bloodpact they made could maybe have been shuffled around and used instead. It would also have fit with the parts when all the Losers' palms split open - instead of reminding them of their promise, it'd be reminding them of the bond.