The Glade 4.0

So after not reading really any books for many years, I finally decided that I should probably try to make this a habit again. I just recently finished my first book in years, called Daemon by Daniel Suarez, a "technothriller" which was quite good. Well now I'd like to not only keep reading interesting books, but books on diverse subjects. Actually, now that I think about it, I should be more specific with what I'm looking for. Give me your top few books on history, on economics, sci-fi and fantasy fiction, non-fiction, biographies, classics, modern classics, science, the whole gamut.

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

My Top Ten Books, Off the Cuff:

The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester
Timeline, by Michael Crichton
The Magic Goes Away, by Larry Niven
Burning Chrome, by William Gibson*
How to Lie with Statistics, by Darrell Huff
A Fine and Pleasant Misery, by Patrick F. McManus
Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
Zodiac, by Neal Stephenson
The Hacker Crackdown, by Bruce Sterling
Mirrorshades, edited by Bruce Sterling*

* Anthologies of Short Stories

Okay, it's heavy on the spec fic. So sue me. I've got a smattering of humor (and a lot of humor in the spec fic, too) and non-fiction in there, and several of those could be considered "modern classics" if the person you ask isn't an anti-scifi snob.

I intentionally tried to avoid anything that doesn't stand alone, which accounts for some glaring (or, at the very least, eyebrow-raising) omissions, particularly from those who know me well. I also tried to avoid just fanboying for a particular author -- I could list more Stephenson (and Gibson, but his stuff falls afoul of the stand-alone constraints as he wrote Trilogies, and I find the first installments of each to be his less well-rounded entries), for instance, but tried to restrain myself. The two from Stephenson that I allowed myself are at least vastly different in scope and subject matter.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

history: (I should add that I'm a WWII history buff)
Ghost Soldiers
Flags of Our Fathers
The Longest Day
Why Nations Go to War

sci-fi
Old Man's War by John Scalzi (along with Ghost Brigades, The Last Colony, Zoe's Tale)
Otherland by Tad Williams (Along with Sea of Silver Light, Mountain of Black Glass)
Uhura's Song by Janet Kagan(Yes, this is a Star Trek Novel, but totally unlike any other I've read, as its something of an acquired taste)
Ender's Game (and associated books)

fantasy
Myth-Series (Another Fine Myth, etc)
Tailchaser's Song (Tad Williams)
The Tales of Alvin Maker (Orson Scott Card)


non-fiction
Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman
The Man who Mistook his wife for a Hat

biographies
No Ordinary Time (FDR)
John Adams

classics
Old Man and the Sea
A Separate Peace
All Quiet on the Western Front

modern classics
A Prayer for Owen Meany
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Play)
Streetcar Named Desire (Play)

I pretty much only read fantasy, so...

A Song of Ice and Fire*:
- Game of Thrones
- Clash of Kings
- Storm of Swords (by itself, nearly as long as the LOTR trilogy)
- Feast for Crows
- Dance with Dragons
- The Winds of Winter (upcoming)
- A Dream of Spring (upcoming, final)

The Malazan Book of the Fallen - 10 books? Haven't actually read them but it's on my next-read list after I finish ASoIF.

*Added benefit of having a fantastic TV show

The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy are really the only books I can stop and say "Yeah, those were great books." I've read other books that I enjoyed, but those are the only ones that I really, really enjoyed.

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Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

I should point out that the title of the first book is "The City of Golden Shadow" -- Otherland is the name of the series. Also, you omitted "The River of Blue Fire," the second in the series.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Watership Down

Ender's Game (and books tied with it, as previously mentioned

Dark Tower series

Vampire of the Mists

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These change frequently, are in no particular order, and I don't read nearly as much as I used to, but:

Good Omens (Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman)
Neverwhere (Neil Gaiman)
American Gods (Neil Gaiman)
Dragonflight (Anne McCaffrey)
Dragonsong (Anne McCaffrey)
This Alien Shore (C.S. Friedman)
The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexander Dumas)
The Traveller (John Twelve Hawks)
Angels & Demons (Dan Brown)
Sphere (Michael Crichton)

And just for kicks - Nonfiction:
Blind Watchers of the Sky (Rocky Kolb)
A Brief History of Time (Stephen Hawking)

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

I didn't think of it earlier, but I did find The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking to be pretty fascinating.

Fairly exclusively read fantasy stuff, and I only rarely dig into lesser known stuff so I won't offer up much in the way of surprises, but...

A Song of Ice and Fire series, for the epic scale and gritty starkness

The Wheel of Time series, which has taken a lot of flak the past decade (some deserved) but is also on an epic scale

The Dresden Files series, for the easy reading humor (warning: actual quality doesn't start til a few books in, IMO. first books are still amusing though)

Any and all things Brandon Sanderson... well ok, I haven't read his YA stuff, but I have read everything else of his. Runs the gamut from one-off novels to the beginning of his own epic-scale series that has just got underway. There's a bit of nerdiness to his writing that I find a bit... indulgent, but his stuff is fun reading often with some twist endings. For those that love looking into fantasy worlds beyond what is focused on in the books, his stuff has a great deal to be discussed too. One of his novels is available for free on his website in pdf format (click here to begin reading)! I could talk a lot more on Sanderson given that Martin, Jordan, and even Butcher have all been discussed on here a few times, but Sanderson I don't think really has beyond his filling in for the last few Wheel of Time books. Maybe we should fix that some day. :p

If I had to throw in something less well-known, I will suggest a pair of two-book series by Sean Russell. Moontide and Magic Rise (World Without End and Sea Without a Shore) then the prequel series The River Into Darkness (Beneath the Vaulted Hills and The Compass of the Soul). Victorianesque enlightened era meets a hidden lost era of magic. I'm not sure these books are in the same league of enjoyment for me as the above, but a) I'm reading them again at the moment and b) probably a better contribution if anyone is looking for new material. They're a bit old, but shouldn't be too hard to find if one is inclined.

edit: bonus addition! Since you included 'classics' in the list, I will take this opportunity to mention the only classic I ever actually was fond of: Tsurezuregusa. Japanese, from around 1331 according to Wikipedia. I read the Keene translation and I love the book to pieces. It's essentially a collection of random thoughts of this old Buddhist monk, some less than a page long, ranging from humorous to historical to observations of human nature (my favorite being a lament on how boring and uncouth people of his day spoke compared to how they did in his past) to musings on Buddhist ideals. It's charming. I suggest finding it in a library, however, as I've found it to be relatively expensive to buy a copy.

To elaborate on what Noggel says about The Dresden Files -- by the end of Summer Knight is generally when I consider the series to pop you in the kisser and stand out as something that makes you go "Wow.. this is really going somewhere exciting."

Also, Noggel, I'm coincidentally about a third of the way into The Way of Kings, after stalling out when something shiny distracted me halfway through the prologue when I first picked it up a couple years ago. It was definitely worth picking up and giving a second shot.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone! I'm compiling a list.

Since I didn't want to wait a few days or a week or however long for a new book order to be delivered before I started reading again, I grabbed an old sci-fi novel off my dusty shelf called A Fire Upon the Deep, which was a Hugo award winner back in 1993 and one I had never finished.

I know the series A Song of Ice and Fire has gotten a lot of great reviews, but I actually wanted to eventually watch the series on DVD or the interwebs. I don't have HBO. Do you think I should read them anyway even if I plan to watch the television adaptation?

speaking of the Otherland series....

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8611

Top of my head.

Fantasy:
Dune (series is good up to and including God Emperor imo)
Rift War Saga - Raymond E Feist also Serpent War Saga. These were the books I got Dashel from
Lord of the Rings
Ender's Game was good too.

History/Politics:
Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism
Rise to Globalism
Road to Serfdom
Closing of the American Mind

Fitness:
Starting Strength
New Rules of Lifting
Omnivores Dilemma

Finance:
Random Walk down Wall Street
The Bogglehead's guide to investing

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“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general”. - Mark Rippetoe

My favorite book too. =)

I started to answer pursuant to the actual OP request, and realized I don't exactly know how to do that. So I'm just going to name a bunch of really great books (and yes, it's heavy on the horror or horror fantasy and very light on the straight-up fantasy; them's the breaks).

Fiction
'Salem's Lot, Stephen King
The Shining, Stephen King
The Stand, Stephen King
11/22/63, Stephen King
Weaveworld, Clive Barker
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
The Dresden Files (series), Jim Butcher
The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss

Poetry
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

Non-Fiction
Danse Macabre, Stephen King
On Writing, Stephen King
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart presents America (The Book)
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart presents Earth (The Book)
The Hero With a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell

And to round out (as they're not novels), I recommend reputable compendiums of H.P. Lovecraft, Arthur Machen, and Edgar Allan Poe.

Forgot to mention, for Audiobooks:

http://www.amazon.com/A-Short-History-N ... 0739302949

A Short History of Nearly Everything, read by the author, is fantastic. I must have listened to it 20 times.

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“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general”. - Mark Rippetoe

Off the top of my head and in no particular order:

The Kite Runner
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Image: A Guide to Psuedo-events in America
Tom Sawyer
The Eye of the World
Story of the Irish Race
Gullliver's Travels
Economics in One Lesson
We the Living
America's Great Depression
On the Road
Friday Night Lights
The Politics of Glory
Slaughterhouse Five
The Hobbit
Money Ball
Foundation

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Ezekiel 23:19-20