What Books really rock/shock your world?

Salem's Lot by Stephen King, absolutely terrified me.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy will stick with you.

After I read Tom Robbins, I felt like I had achieved the pinnacle of fiction reading and kind've stopped reading after that. Now, I know that's possibly not true (which is why I'm on this thread) but have yet to meet anything that has come near the one that I'm recommending to you right now: Skinny Legs and All
I have read some of the books listed in this thread it turns out, and especially enjoyed Weaveworld and all things Douglas Adams. I'm also quite intrigued by that Linux administration handbook now.



Seriously, it's amazing on all levels.

3 books everyone should read in my opinion

Go ask Alice
The diary of a young girl from sixties anonymous author but you'll understand why if you read the book.
At one point I launched the book down a train
Again read it you'll understand why.

Being fifteen is hard, but Alice seems fine. She babysits the neighbour's kids. She is doing well at school. Someday she'd even like to get married and raise a family of her own. Then she is invited to a party, a special party

Alice is never the same again

The book thief

Told from the point of view of Death

It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . .

Doesn't sound like much but very LOL and move to tears.

The reluctant fundamentalist

'Excuse me, sir, but may I be of assistance? Ah, I see I have alarmed you. Do not be frightened by my beard. I am a lover of America . . . '

So speaks the mysterious stranger at a Lahore cafe as dusk settles. Invited to join him for tea, you learn his name and what led this speaker of immaculate English to seek you out. For her is more worldy than you might expect; better travelled and better educated. He knows the West better than you do. And as he tells you his story, of how he embraced the Western dream -- and a Western woman -- and how both betrayed him, so the night darkens. Then the true reason for your meeting becomes abundantly clear . .

A simply brilliant narrative

Just my 2 cents
Cody

reply to post by PeteySD

Me too
and also It,Bag of Bones,Cell.I liked his book Dolores Claibourne especially,as well-very athmospheric and haunting.

Every and any book ever written by RUTH RENDELL-one word-BRILLIANT.Mostly crime/detective,but the way she brings her characters to life,the human nature aspect.

Dean Koontz writes very unputdownable books too,though his "good guy" characters are usually a bit Too good for me to identify with 100%,his "bad guys"/enemy faction is usually completely diabolical,and usually the more interesting characters.If you only read 2 books of him ever,make it Fear Nothing and Seize the Night-for a totally alternative apocalypse scenario.

Horror novels/thrillers are my bag,and i would say Havock Junction by Joe Donnely was one i could absolutely not put down.

Perfume by Patrick Suskind.

Any book by Fay Weldon-her books may be a bit dated now-but also absolutely brilliant,funny as all heck,and empowering in a way-well,she writes from a very feministic worldview,but she has a very honest way,she certainly do not spare her female characters,she's very objective.

Any book by Kathy Reichs-she has this character who is a forensic anthropologist,working the police cases of old murders-very interesting-not "easy reads" one has to concentrate a bit,but it's got lots of plot twists and the endings always surprise,very enjoyable.Maybe not for the sqeamish so much though.Kathy Reichs is herself a forensic anthropologist,so she goes into great detail of the work involved.

If you haven't read anything from H.P. Lovecraft, I recommend everyone give it a try. Brilliant horror author way ahead of his time that inspired Stephen King and many others.

I would recommend "Dreams in the Witch House", "At the Mountains of Madness", and "Shadow over Innsmouth."

But ALL of his stories are genius.

This isn't a horror or anything, just an amazing story of one girls struggles and travels set 1888, combined with a love story and pressures from society and how she climbed her way to the top and fought back after a rough upbringing. It's one of my favourite books of all time, I read it when I was about 13 and I have re-read it a few times since.
There are some awesome suggestion in the comments though and I now have a list of books I want to read, so thanks

1984

This book changed my life with out sounding too dramatic.

It was almost like a light had been turned on in my head and the world in front of me was a lot clearer.

Many years ago i read a book i think was called The Green Planet.

About a guy who crash land on a distant planet, the planet is completly covered in dence tall forest, the forest consist of 3 layers, where the top layer is green and full of life, the middel layer is darker and predators roam about, and the bottom absolutly deadly.
It's a story about suvival, and waiting of rescue.

I can't remember the author or the real name of the book, but it was freaking awesome.

If anyone should know about this book, please inform me, as i would like to read it again

Here are a few goodies that may interest a few readers. Dalton Trumbo, Johnny Got His Gun, Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five (OK, anything by Vonnegut, James Mills, The Underground Empire (true story, and I was surprised no one ever made a movie about it...), Robert Heinlein, Job: A Comedy Of Justice, Short stories by Raymond Carver and John Updike (and his novels), and The Travis McGee Series by John D MacDonald. There are so many more I'd like to list. I wish there were were more threads like this. It makes for a nice list to add to my list. Hope everybody makes it a great day. Regards, J

Stop Time-Frank Conroy
Cats Cradle-Kurt Vonnegut
The Stand- Stephan King.
Needful Things-Stephan King-quite a few of his books are funny and this and Tommyknockers were
actually really hilarious.
The Call of Cthulhu-H.P Lovecraft
The Colour Outerspace-H.P Lovecraft
JR- William Gaddis
A Frolic of His Own-William Gaddis
Gravity's Rainbow- Thomas Pynchon
Against The Day-Thomas Pynchon
Any Kurt Vonnegut Book- Sirens of Titan, Slaughterhouse Five etc....
Any William Gaddis Book-my favorite author. My chocolate lab is named Gaddis.
Any Tom Robbins Book. Thanks for the mention above think I would have forgotten how much I liked his work.
Red Mars-Kim Stanly Robinson
Snow Crash-Neal Stephanson- amazing how accurate this book turned out being
Cryptonomicon-Neal Stephanson. Fascinating.
The Books of Blood-Clive Barker
-.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn,

Zen and the art of motorcyle maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig.

Both totally wikid.

reply to post by Silcone Synapse


Books which I really like which I have read recently

Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance . Robert M Pirsig
Hamlets mill .
metro 2033

great books

Robert Anton Wilson was an author of fiction and nonfiction who was able to use language to describe how reality works and why you want it to work for you. And his stuff is so much fun to read that he's been called such things as either the head of the Illuminati or the arch-enemy of the Illuminati, to the New Age's best writer to the New Age's worse nightmare. Some of his many books are "Schrodinger's Cat", "Masks of the Illuminati", "Wilhelm Reich in Hell" (great for the introduction alone), "Cosmic Trigger" trilogy, etc.

Wilson was a good buddy of Timothy Leary, and if you haven't read Leary's books then you won't know why he had to be discredited. A great writer.

And then you have your Terence McKenna, your Jane Roberts, and your (fill in the blank).

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reply to post by gottaknow
Yes to Tom Robbins!! But here's the book I keep coming back to every 5 years or so...

Illusions, by Richard Bach. An awesome book that I think everyone should read, if that happened the world would probably be a better place.

Guns Germs and Steel

Stranger in a Strange Land

for starters...

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand made a lasting impact on me and it's still on my list of paradigm-shifting WOW books after 30 years! All books by Ayn Rand are must-reads including Atlas Shrugged.
The Fountainhead shaped my view of personal integrity to Self and the world around me. The illustration of true evil in it's subtleties opened my eyes ever since. It's brilliantly written and I'd linger over phrases and pages...a symphony in prose!

2 other stupendous books that I'd think and talk about for years are
A Fire Upon the Deep and
A Deepness in The Sky
by Hugo Award Winner Vernor VInge

The Journey of Socrates by Dan Millman gripped me for 2 days of straight reading and when I finished, I was so impacted at the end that I turned immediately to Page 1 and started the book all over again! (If you haven't read this book, Socrates is not the famed philosopher.) Future readings left their marks on me in different ways.

Originally posted by intrepid
Clive Barker. He's Britain's Stephen King. Only one thing. His imagination and vocabulary dwarf King's. The stories don't flow as well because you have to put the book down and think about it a bit. Kinda like Tolkien. Clive's work:

www.clivebarker.info...

Btw, if you've seen a Hellraiser movie..... that's Barker.

So is Candyman.
Which actually turned out to be a pretty good horror film.

"The Black Science" Its a book about ancient mind manipulation techniques, teaches about propaganda, and how its used. Teaches you how to tell if someone is telling the truth. I can say with 100% assurance EVERYONE ON THIS SITE SHOULD READ THIS BOOK. Its less than 200 pages, about 160-70, but FILLED with information, that you will notice is being used on YOU, EVERYDAY. I mean EVERYDAY. EVERY MINUTE, OF EVERY HOUR. Enjoy the read if you decide to pick it up.

www.amazon.com...