What are your favorite all time books?

[selfAdjoint]

Thomas Covenant was a powerfully written anti hero, a man who believed nothing, didn't want to be what they said he was and behaved deplorably because of it.

But in the end he was the world-saver they all thought he was destined to be! Another role reversal. Note this is prefigured in his name: Doubting Thomas, plus Covenant.

 

[Schrodinger's Dog]

Until this morning I did not realize there were any new TC books published. I am going to order The Runes of the Earth. It has been so long since I read the series I may have to go back and read all of them again.

The gap series, it's based on the opera The Ring Cycle by Wagner. Set in space with the creepiest aliens you're ever likely to read about who inhabit a zone called forbidden space. But the power play and character development is the real story. Check out the real story it's really a novella that spawned the series, and if you like that, you'll love the rest.

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/series/-/89332/mass%5Fmarket/103-7971756-8590216&tag=pfamazon01-20

The Real Story is a short but intense tale set in a future in which humans travel between the stars using "gap drives," controllable brain implants are punishable by death, and a private company called the United Mining Company runs law enforcement for all of known space. Ensign Morn Hyland lives aboard a police ship with most of her family, chasing down pirates and other illegals who prey on the weak or smuggle goods into forbidden space.

Through a strange turn of events, one particularly nasty perpetrator ends up with Morn as his companion--or at least that's the way it appears to the folks at the space station's bar. Why would a young, strong, beautiful police officer associate with a crusty, murdering pirate? People watch with interest as Morn appears to fall in lust with another racy illegal, Captain Nick Succorso. Morn and Nick must have plotted together to frame Angus and escape together, right? But the real story was quite different.

The Real Story: The Gap into Conflict
Forbidden Knowledge: The Gap Into Vision
A Dark and Hungry God Arises: The Gap into Power
Chaos and Order: The Gap Into Madness
This Day All Gods Die: The Gap Into Ruin

But in the end he was the world-saver they all thought he was destined to be! Another role reversal. Note this is prefigured in his name: Doubting Thomas, plus Covenant.

Do you know I never really thought about his name, thanks

An inspired series though without a doubt.

 

[PRodQuanta]

And Harry Potter isn't kiddish? I see

I used to think so until I read book 6. At that pace, book 7 (coming out 7/7/07) will be R rated.

Paden Roder

 

[Astronuc]

The Fifth Mountain by Paulo Coelho is a compelling book.

Coelho has an interesting biography - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Coelho

http://www.paulocoelho.com/engl/

 

[Mk]

The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King
The Demon-Haunted World, by Carl Sagan
The Life of Pi, by Yann Martel

READ THEM! The first is the essence of entertainment, and the next two, have had an impact on my life. I highly recommend them.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

The most used books in my collection are
The CRC Handbook of Chem and Physics
Feynman Lectures on Physics [Parts I, II, and III]
Classical Electrodynamics [Jackson]
Physics [Halliday and Resnick, Parts I and II]
General Chem [Macmillan]
Introductory Electronics [Simpson]
Handbook of BASIC for the IBM PC [Brady, 1985, not used much lately ]

 

[Azael]

In no particular order

Hitchikers guide to the galaxy. Doesnt get any funnier than that!

Foundation books by Asimo. Just amazing. Sci fi can't get any better than this.

Revelation space by Alastair Reynolds. The new king of sci fi! Different from any sci fi I have read before.

Solaris by Stanislaw lem. No book has ever disturbed me as much as this one. This book scared the **** out of me and at the same time left me with a horrible empty uneasy feeling. I found it so disturbing that I had a hard time reading it and still I loved every page. Defenetly one of the most memorable books I have ever read.

Relativity: the special and general theory by Einstein. I got ahold of this book in 5th grade and it was what got me into physics in the first place. Loved it.

The rama books by Clark. They are all brilliant, can't say any more than that.

2001, 2010, 2061 and 3001 by Clark. Nothing needs to be said about these. 2010 is my favorite in the series.

Heechee series by Pohl. Brilliant aswell.

Il stop here :)

 

[star.torturer]

azael: good choices there with relevation space, do you want to read more of that stuff? have you read the new ones or even a bit of PF Hamilton?

 

[Azael]

azael: good choices there with relevation space, do you want to read more of that stuff? have you read the new ones or even a bit of PF Hamilton?

I have read Chasm City and Redemption Ark and I loved both of them. Gonna pic up a few more books by Reynolds anyday :)

I have read Hamilton aswell. Both the nights dawn triology and the comonwealth saga. His works are excelent. I preferred comonwealth over nights dawn though. I have never read a author that can keep the story interesting over so many pages. I mean hell nights dawn triology must be around 3600 pages.

Do you know any books in the same style as revelation space but by other authors??

 

[arildno]

At the present, Mike Dash's "Thug: The true history of India's murderous cult"
It tells the chilling story of one of the sneakiest, and deadliest, secret socities the world has been afflicted with.

The Thugs were murderers and robbers who delighted in gaining the confidence of their future victims, and offered themselves to be good traveling company on the dangerous roads of India. They could travel as fast friends with their victims for weeks before they found a "suitable spot" to dispatch them (the Thugs had favourite killing grounds, called beles, to which they led their unsuspecting victims).

And as night fell on, and some of the Thugs sat entertaining their victims, another one sneaked up behind, and slipped the cord around the victim's throat and strangled him quickly.

Until their discovery and subsequent extirpation by the British in the 1830's, the Thug gangs were probably responsible for 5000-6000 annual murders, and had been doing so for at least a couple of centuries.

A very good bedtime story!

 

[Evo]

I was surprised this week when I received a large package from my friend in New York. Turned out to be a couple of dozen science fiction books. :!)

I lost my entire collection of science fiction paperbacks when a friend that had borrowed them moved to the Phillipines and they "accidently" got packed and shipped, yeah right. Accident.

Anyway, he has an incredible collection of old science fiction paperbacks and some are duplicates and it really made me sad remembering all the books I lost. So, he surprised me by shipping me a bunch. :!) :!) (Except he doesn't have a duplicate Asimov's Mysteries) http://www.answers.com/topic/asimov-s-mysteries

There are some REALLY NICE people in this world, and MIH and Zooby & Zz are also people that have gone out of their way to do nice things for me and I SUCK. I owe all four of these people and I really suck. I have become a terrible procrastinator.

 

[Reshma]

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is worth a read.

 

[neutrino]

Finished reading Avenger by Frederick Forsyth a couple of days ago. I made a point to read more of his work after watching the movie The Odessa File. I'm currently reading The Afghan by the same author. It's been only a couple of months since its release, and last night I was reading about the events that happened on September 15th, 2006!

 

[Crystal Faye]

My favorite book of all time is Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I don't care if you think it is juvenile, I really love it.

 

[SpitfireAce]

"The Road to Reality" by Penrose. Even though I haven't finished this book, the small part I read can only be described by one word: "Beautiful"

Just thinking about it makes me happy

really? I really liked it up until chapter 8... I thought, finally, a book that is as long (and presumably thorough) as a textbook, but not as boring... but then he discusses stuff like conformal mapping, riemann surfaces, sigh... I never learned these things and he does a bad job of introducing them, so I decided to wait until I learned it in school... I am finishing up calculus, freshman in college... do I have a long wait? what is your math background?

 

[Math Jeans]

Because its relevant to what is currently going on, I'm going to say Flatland.