including comic books.
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Not a book, but two series: The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy (Douglas Adams) and the Discworld series (Terry Pratchett)
In both series I think the first book is the best
I’ll always love corporal carrot!
Mine are “The luggage” and “death” …still waiting for them to join in adventure
In both series I think the first book is the best
Yeah, the Hitchhiker’s Guide series starts out with dark humor, sure, but…it’s still irreverent and kind of done in a light-hearted way. But that series gets grimmer and grimmer the further one goes, and I just found myself not enjoying myself by the end of it. I don’t understand people who love the whole series. I just found it wearing to read towards the end.
That and the Dune series are my own top “love the first book, but the series goes downhill over the course of the series” series.
EDIT: Calvin and Hobbes did the same thing. I love a ton of the Calvin and Hobbes cartoons, but man, in his last few books-worth of material, Bill Watterson was not happy and his cartoons were just cynical and unhappy too.
me? I dont mean anything
The first book is debatable in discworld. Not its quality, but whether it’s first or not. That seems fitting for it.
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse I think… I normally don’t re-read books, but made an exception for this one.
Tough choice though.
- Necromancer by William Gibson gripped me hard.
- anything by Terry Pratchett. Hard to choose, but probably Feet Of Clay.
- anything by Ursula Le Guin, probably The Dispossessed.
Probably forgetting a few, those would all be in my top 5 though
Neuromancer… Necromancer is TOTALLY different!
It reallyy depends on a lot of factors.
I don’t really have the favorite.
But I’d consider these books/series as my favorites:
- Hitchhikers guide series
- Children Of Time series
- Three body problem series
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke - magical fantasy set in England around 1800, absolutely beautiful imo and one of those books you just live inside while you’re reading it
Note to anyone thinking of picking this up: read it, don’t listen to it. The book layout is meant to mimic a history book, and is filled with footnotes that have a life of their own. 11/10 book, imo. And I believe it took Clarke a solid decade to write because it was such an undertaking, but that work paid off!
East of Eden - John Steinbeck
I lived in Steinbeck country. You would love it.
I had to search where that is, and I envy you now :)
At this stage in life, Infinite Jest and A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again.
For comics, I really liked Calvin and Hobbes.
The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein. I read that when I was in high school over 30 years ago and it had more impact on me (no pun intended if you’ve read it) than anything before or since, I think. I read Stranger In A Strange Land shortly after and that one did a number on me, too. Heinlein’s place in the pantheon of science fiction gods was well earned.
For lighter stuff, the Scions of Shanarra series, by Terry Brooks, is one I have gone back to many times.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is also my favourite book!
This is one of those questions where the answer will probably change from day to day.
Today I’ll say Count Zero, the middle book of William Gibson’s Cyberpunk trilogy. It built on the ideas he explored in Neuromancer and was tighter and less rambling than Mona Lisa Overdrive.
Haha I’m always arguing with a friend over which is best, I prefer MLO out of the three.
Reading Nevada by Imogen Binnie finally allowed me to come out as trans to myself when I was in my teens. No other book has changed my life that profoundly.
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. A world that has so many cool things, but at the same time, we can only hope we never end up in.
After many moves still one of the only books left in my possession. The others being Good Omens and Monday Begins on Saturday.
Short but always like Hatchet.
Hatchet is a 1987 young-adult wilderness survival novel written by American writer Gary Paulsen.
The Way of Kings (Stormlight Archive) - Brandon Sanderson
When I first bought it, I got through about 3 chapters and then shelved it. A couple of years later I was looking for something to read, I saw this book being praised and remembered I had a copy. I ended up getting hooked and sucked into the cosmere.
Oh, boy, you have to understand… I have my own library… separated into two rooms. A proper “library” library and a separate room for comic books and graphic novels.
It’s really impossible to pick a single favorite. Best I can do is make suggestions by genre:
Travel:
Redmond O’Hanlon, “Into the Heart of Borneo” and “In Trouble Again”. A natural history book REVIEWER is packed up and sent to first Borneo and then the Amazon. They are bright, funny, and immensely readable. He followed them up with “No Mercy” which is about the Congo and it is dark, depressing and heartbreaking. I’m glad I read it, but it’s a bit of a record scratch after the first two.
Tim Cahill, “Road Fever”. He has multiple travel books, “A Wolverine is Eating My Leg”, “Jaguars Ripped My Flesh” and “Pecked to Death By Ducks”, but Road Fever is my favorite. He was hired by GM as a promotional stunt to drive their new truck from the tip of Argentina to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska as fast as he could.
Dark Fantasy:
The Night Watch books (6 of them) by Sergei Lukyanenko. This is a hard one to suggest, because after writing the very good books, he took this J.K. Rowling style turn and went off the deep end on the Ukraine/Russia issue. Lukyanenko is a Russian of Ukrainian heritage and has gone full Putin. :(
The books themselves were all written before the Crimean invasion and are separate from real world politics. The premise is there have been two warring factions, the Night Watch, a group of magicians, shapeshifters, and other magical entities who serve as a bureacratic stop against the Day Watch, your vampires, witches, and werewolves who have their own bureaucratic structure holding the Night Watch accountable.
There was a film called “Night Watch” which is quite good, it adapts about 1/3rd of the first book. The sequel “Day Watch” isn’t as good, and veered from the book so hard, it painted them into a corner to a point where no 3rd film was possible. :(
Fiction:
Carlos Ruiz Zafon - The Cemetery of Forgotten Books (5 books). Not technically a “series”, but all set in post Franco Spain. The first book, Shadow of the Wind introduces the Cemetery of Forgotten books, where a young boy is given custody of a book from a mysterious library of lost, out of print, and mysterious editions.
He finds that someone is going through Europe, collecting all books by that author, and burning them.
The translator here does a STUNNING job, there are lyrical turns of phrase that border on poetry. A beautiful read.
Romance:
Nick Bantock - Griffin and Sabine books (7 books). These you really want to buy NEW and not used. It’s the story of a romance between Griffin and Sabine, but it’s done through a collection of reproduced letters, envelopes, and postcards. You’ll turn a page, find an envelope glued to the next page, open it, find a letter inside, unfold it and read it.
Like kids pop-up books, used copies run the risk of damaged and missing bits.
Superhero Comics:
James Robinson, Starman. 81 issues, related crossovers and mini-series. Jack Knight is one of the sons of the 1940s hero Starman. He wants no part of his father’s legacy, that’s his brother’s deal, but when an old villain comes back, Jack picks up the mantle to defend himself. It’s a touching story of fathers, sons, brothers, and legacy.
Allan Moore, Tom Strong. Ridiculously fun. Makes you happy to read comics again. A Doc Savage pastiche, Strong is a science hero. Experimented on by his parents, he has enhanced strength, speed and lifespan. Dedicating his life to solving science problems. At the end, dovetails into Moore’s treatise on magic, Promethea, which is a bit of a tougher read. A Wonder Woman variation with Moore’s notes on magic and the end of the world. So it ends with the juxtaposition of science vs. magic.
The light novel series Ascension of a bookworm is my absolute favorite.
