Favorites list

[mojoboy31]

[gwenhyver42]

Just a few off the top of my head:
Anything by JRR Tolkien- The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Children of Hurin... and I need to read more of his work.
C.S. Lewis- Chronicles of Narnia, The Space Trilogy (which is more obscure and heavy in the philosophy department, but definitely worth the read)
Brian Simmons- The Passion Translation: So far, he's done the Song of Solomon, the Psalms, and Luke. I can't remember what he's working on right now, but it's good stuff.

[gwenhyver42]

Oh! I knew I forgot something-
The Circle Trilogy/Series by Ted Dekker! haha...

[Dadinator]

Robert Jourdan's 'The Wheel of Time' series. 13-14 books each minimum 800 pages. Don't let that book pile land on you.

[gwenhyver42]

[mojoboy31]

[Dadinator]

Seriously, They are awesome. In fact the author passed away before he could finish the series and a new author has stepped in (book 13 +) seamlessly.

[Eskarina]

The Nerdy Books I Love:

The Canterbury Tales: for reassurances that people never change over time because they will always laugh at sex and fart jokes.

The Breton Lais and Arthurian Romances: for Faery Knights and Magical Happenings

Beowulf: for heros and monsters and epic battles

Sir Gaiwain and The Green Knight: because it's just fantastic and everyone should read and love it

The Other Nerdy Books I Love

Atonement by Ian McEwan: for reminding me that honesty is the best policy as a writer, and teaching me to be true to my story.

House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewiski : for scaring the ever loving pants off of me when I finished at three am home alone.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman: for the beautiful "I believe" and also for making me both laugh and cry in the same chapter.

The Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling: for reminding me that it's ok to look at the world and see some place a little magical.

The Protector of The Small Series by Tamora Pierce: for providing me with Keladry as a role model when I was a pre-teen and teenager who wasn't interested in boys, marriage, or dresses, but in becoming a strong, competent woman who could not only lead an army, but create one from refugees when she needed to.

[mojoboy31]

[gwenhyver42]

I started the complete works of Chaucer a while back. It's... not easy to get through if you don't have some understanding of Old English. Needless to say, with the enormous pile of books I have to read, I only got a few pages in before getting distracted.

I've read Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small series- good books. I also have one or two of the Alianna series, but I haven't read them yet, because I blew through the other books, and I'd rather have all of them at hand when I start.

Beowulf is on my reading list, eventually, as is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Medieval tales fascinate me.

Anyone ever read the Mabinogion? It's a collection of Welsh tales.
Also, the Song of Roland- an old French epic set during the reign of Charlemagne... which, in typical French fashion, ends in tragedy. Lots of swordfights.

[Eskarina]

@Mojo: I highly recommend all of them, but the last five are fairly easy reads (especially Harry Potty and The Protector of The Small).

American Gods is a great book to jump into if you haven't read anything else by Gaiman (he wrote "The Doctor's Wife last season of Doctor Who as well) It's about the idea that the gods immigrants brought to America with them never left. The cast of characters includes all sorts of mythological beings along with some great American style folklore as the old gods get set to go to war with new gods of technology. A human named Shadow is caught in the middle of it all. (PG-13)

House of Leaves is postmodern style novel about a house that is bigger on the inside. One day, a door leading down a mysterious hallway appears in the living room. An expedition is formed to explore it, but is something living inside? Meanwhile, a the young writer chronicling the story battles with his sanity. (R)

Atonement: young Briony witnesses a scene that changes the life of her, and the two other people involved. All of them will be acting and re-acting to it for the next twenty years. Takes place at the beginning of WW2 (PG-13)

Protector of the Small is harder to summarize. It follows a girl through her training to become a night of her kingdom. Along the way she deals with everything from powerful Magical enemies baby griffons to bullies.

@gwen: the Middle English can be intimidating. It's easiest if you say it out loud (everything is written phonetically since ere was no standardized spelling) and remember the Great Vowel Shift (everybody talked an octave lower back then). I reccomend the Miller's Tale at least. Or just watch this:

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=GTMPvpiu ... TMPvpiuyRY

Sir Gaiwain is one of my favorites, part of the reason I became a medieval scholar. I love the ambiguity of the ending.

I have a copy of the Song of Roland on my shelf, but I haven't started it yet.

[mojoboy31]

@Eskarina,

I've read a few comics by Neil Gaiman. He's pretty talented.

I've heard of Atonement, come to think of it.

[Demonhunter]

I can't really say any one fiction book is my favorite I really like Ted Dekker's Circle, John Flanagan's Rangers Apprentice, and Veronica Roth's Divergent (even though I have only read the first.)
But if you were to ask me to recomend a book depending on your genre of choice I would probably recomend one of these.

[mojoboy31]

Nice sig, DH! lol...

Another one of my favorites is Jumper by Stephen Gould. Way different than the movie, and definitely rated R, but still a good read.

[~Ęlmįrą~]

Protecter of the small is one of my favorites too. I really like Elizabeth Moon's Paksenarrion trilogy. I have so many favorites. My newest one is Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas.